The Design Pitch

To begin with this project, our group chose to re - advertise the high karate franchise because we figured this would be the most intresting to come up with something new for. i first began with researching the USP of hai karate from the late 70s to mid 80s and noted down the aspects behind them e.g affordable, bargain baskets and how it was supposedly irresistable to women. i also noticed the made other products not just aftershave but soaps and talcom powder.

This hai karate advert is one of the very first commercials of the hai karate campaign. It clearly indicates that if the consumer uses this aftershave, then women would be irresistable. i believe the setting in a hospital helped the advert alot. Simply because Hai Karate was a big part of male grooming back in the 1980s, but then it also got nominated down to a gift.

 

 

I first thought it would be interesting to re design the whole campaign which included the bottle and distribution of it. But once i looked over the brief again i saw that it was not what the project was about. it was mainly about introducing the product to the modern day consumers, and finding the best way to sell it alongside big aftershave company's like Hugo Boss and Diesel etc. most of the modern day aftershaves, are promoted by male beauty and relating to contemporary society. whether it be fashion, travel or humour.

LYNX - DARK TEMPATION

Hai Karate was very well-known for its advertisements, but there is a strong familiaritie between the vintage hai karate commercials and today the types of advertisements still existing, like the lynx and tag brands. i particularly chose the lynx dark temptation scent, because i feel there is a slight fusion of the hai karate influence and cadburys milk tray, hense the guy putting on the deodrant and turning into chocolate.

I started to notice there are alot of hidden messages with this commercial for example the whole chocolate concept. Chocolate makes initially us feel good especially women, simply because Chocolate contains phenylethylamine, the same chemical that is released in the brain when we fall in love. Eating chocolate can give some people a natural "high" which is often related to the feeling of being in love. it is also believed that chocolate is an aphrodisiac e.g the moment in the commercial with the strawberry in the belly button.

I also realised there is a sense of humour and irony incorporated aswell, when the chocolate figure walks past the spinning class in the gym. which makes the character even more irresistable but then its combined with humour when he is waving and his arm gets ripped off.

I think this is a more contemporary version of the hai karate adverts, with a lot more thought and precision put in. simply because every consumer who watches the advert can  relate to moments captured e.g the first date - in the cinema or on the bus - the women biting a chunk out of his behind instead of grabbing it.

so to get my point across i began with drawing up different thumbnails of ideas and tried to cross reference things i have learnt in the graphics modules to try and focus more on the product and its logo rather than concentrating on changing the face of the product. I found that the idea for promoting hai karate is to also enhance it with a catchy slogan rather than a cheesy television ad. In relation to this i was told to watch and reseacrh the new Old Spice advert and see what has changed about it and how have they tried to take a different approach. But I believe the new advert did the product no favours simply because at first glance it looks very homosexual and quite basic, i also found that as long as the consumer cant hear the advert, watching it you really dont know what it is about. it looked more like a advert for a carribean holiday rather than a men's aftershave.

on these notes I jotted down suggestions for each advert which i could possibly use or 

take further into the development process. i also showed what would be the best technique in designing these adverts either digitally or manually and what would be more cost effective for the company.

• The process of elimination

now that I had a substantial amount of designs and concepts up together , i had to figure out which would be best to promote the product and to sell to the consumer. i had to take many factors into consideration like what time of year it would be sold in, the colour scheme, the typeface etc. I had designed 6 - 9 images to develop further but on average 6 had to be discarded because i feel they would enhance the product as well as the others maybe because they have been used for other campaigns or they just were not as effective as i would want them to be after the production process so I chose -

• Nunchuks - I thought this would be the number one selling poster design because it has incorporated hidden messages within it and can be easily related to the target audience which would be males ranging from 16 year old teenagers to older mature men who are fans or who have seen old martial art movies. which is one the hidden concepts that nunchuks were used expressively by the late, great Bruce Lee in most of his films. and they can be used as a weapon to fend off perpertraitors which connects to the vintage hai karate adverts and the hai karate instruction manual concept. The way the logo could be stamped on the pavement would give the advertisement that street urban look. for this concept I did two designs and experimented with the typeface and logo positioning highlighting the concept and slogan behind it. io also experimented with different backgrounds to see which ones looked the more authentic and not changing the logo design but the logo colour.

Christmas Promotions - I decided on doing christmas promotions since hai karate was later busted down to a christmas present rather than a day to day item. so I thought if an advert could be produced which is equivelent to a M + S advert would help the product sell dramatically. I also thought with these concepts they could possibly be done as a form of collage using everyday items giving it that 3d effect but then this trechnique would be very time consuming and a bit too abstract for the public eye. Technically using photoshop worked very well and gave it a sense of modernism.

I feel that in these concepts it was more about the slogan and item promotion rather than the compisition that would enhance these poster greatly around the time of christmas, simply because they would be more eye catching. I tried a different avenue aswell and produced a christmas advert maybe for a hai karate perfume for women, using the femme fatale as subject matter. I was hoping this concept would appeal most definatly to women but to younger teenage girls, who are interested in perfume, hair, make up and all other cosmetic factors. Around christmas this poster in particular would appeal to consumers and would help re - launch the product successfully.

for these designs I experimented with the slogan typeface and with the text morph tool to see if it gives the reader a sense of comfort, enjoyment and intrigue whilst reading it. I could possibly see these adverts being possibly posterized for big supermarket stores like Tesco's, Sainsbury's and Boots.

My choice of colour for this poster design, really highlighted the concept. with the contrast of red and dark blue enhanced the product and made it stand out much more efficiently. The decoration on the bow re - iterated that it was a christmas promotion, rather than a everyday in store promotion i.e boots or superdrug. In relation to the group i thought i could collaborate with another team member called matt, and design an animated television advert then finish with the shot and the text in a smiling motion.

The choice of colour scheme for the oriental lime poster, reckon worked very well. the contrast in Light green with the cool blue compliment each other and the product. I think the only thing i could improve on with these adverts is the composition of each image. the logo position works, and the font but the product could be placed in a more precised and contemporary way.

with this design i only wanted to experiment with the different sizing and positioning of the all important hai karate logo and the product. By making the product smaller and more squashed it could become a type of lotion or hair gel that could be part of a shop deal e.g buy one get one free. the pale grey logo stands out brillianty from the background. but i reckon i should have wrote the text in a more comfortable typeface and colour choice. maybe writing it in dark black or blue, not the exact same colour of the logo. 

Hai karate in the past was more directed to older mature men, and maybe young teenage boys. The old adverts for this product was quite believable. Along with the brilliant USP of the product coming with an instruction defence manual. This i thought might be another avenue our group could take in re - launching the high karate product. after the steps of Poster design and confirming target audience, the aim would be to maybe re design the packaging. but that is not part of this design brief.

• A Billboard - I felt that a Hai Karate billboard would be a brilliant idea, mainly because I this particular product has not been advertised this way before in previous campaigns. I thought that if a billboard could be shown in a place like London or New York this would lead to incredible exposure that would boost the product sales greatly. the design did not need to be over done with images or text, it just had to look simple but effective. So i started first with a intresting background using the special effects brush tool of roses and then drawing on the logo manually and a little differently but still the same as previous adverts. the choice of color and font for this billboard had to look different to others and had to be easy to read from a certain distance e.g like looking out of a window or driving past. it also had to be eye catching like " ooh what is that " so I enhanced the image by placing the bottle of aftershave in the far right corner. the image I took was of a billboard in Bristol, but i also had the idea of advertising in places like Times Square and Piccadilly Circus where crowds of people congregate every day. the slogan also had to be a very catchy one so instead of giving a warning like the vintage adverts I chose "attract only the best" indicating if you use this the consumer would get the best females attracted to him.

THE FINAL CONCEPT