#measuringdesigneffectiveness

Greetings everyone,

 These four weeks have been the toughest by far as I have been creating assets for my chosen organization You Matter Mentorship Program. This program provides life guidance to youth and young adults through its mentor programing. They provide this programing at local schools, churches, and youth centers. Their target audience is youth between the ages of 18-33 years of age, as this age group shows the highest levels of stress. Their programming is designed to alleviate the stress of their target audience deals with on a day-to-day basis. While keeping this in mind, I began creating my pieces.

During week one of this course, we were introduced to creating our logo, and the use of surveys in our design process. As using surveys in design  new for me, I had to complete some initial research. During this, I came across the article Logo Testing, Your Target Market Can Help You Pick a Winner Part 1 by Kathryn Korostoff, she states “Very often, you have several logos and want some input to help make the final choice. A logo testing survey can give you valuable input from your target market. The survey can also be used to determine if the target market thinks the logo is consistent with the brand personality, product category or value proportion. After all, a logo could be very attractive, but simply not seem relevant to the audience. That said, logos aren’t magical—we can’t expect a logo design by itself to convey specific information,” (Korostoff, 2016). As during this week, we were manly focusing on our logo, this information was pertinent and gave me the insight needed on how to make sure I utilized my survey results effectively when creating my logo. From this, I created my initial logo iterations and begain my survey process.

From the results of my survey, I was able to continue my iteration process. However, via peer feedback in the discussion, I had to make a few more changes to my logo. After making these changes, I was able to move forward to my assets. I have to admit, during my initial start, I had no clue what assets were or what exactly I would be creating. So I began a laundry list of items I felt would fit well with You Matter Mentorship Program. This list included swag items, guerrilla marketing, social media marketing, and print items. However, I was still not comfortable in knowing exactly what I was creating. So, I did a little more research. According to the article Sold on Seniors, “A brand asset is a tool that enhances your products image, slogans, advertising, publicity, sales, promotions and customer service. It helps to create a meaningful identity that builds emotional bonds with your target audience. It compels them to take action and provides the logic that justifies their decision in choosing your products,” (Brand Assets, n.d).From this research, I was able to create both print and multimedia components for my asset package.

Through creating my assets, I wanted to make sure I kept the positive, uplifting, and powerful message for my target audience. With the peer feedback and survey results, I felt as though I was able to do so. I learned through this process that the design process for anything takes times and multiple iterations. Even in my current place of employment, I know I will be able to use this same process. As I currently create pieces for the Office of Student Health and Counseling on our campus here in Georgia, it takes many revisions, much research, and a team to make sure all components of the brand and its cohesive. Now with the implementation of surveys, I will be able to assist our team in gauging our target audience to make sure we are not only catering to the needs of the brand but the needs of our target audience. I look forward to using the skills I acquired in this course in the continuation of my career.

Best,

Greetings everyone,