#upsidedowns

As we are unable to source mock up pictures of the pillow, since its quite a specific design, we’ve decided to make an actual prototype of the pillow, photograph it and use that for the presentation. 

The pillows are to be based on the characters from the animation (without the legs and arms). I first made a basic pattern using the characters Chelsea had drawn as a base. I tweaked them slightly to make them easier to cut out and sew. I then printed these out, cut them and sewed them together.

Unfortunately the suppliers in NZ have a limited range of colours for the polar fleece materials I used for the pillows. Ideally, they should be lighter/pastel to match those on the computer screenshot above. However, for this prototype they should be fine. Hopefully we can tweak the colours on photoshop once they have been photographed. If this were to actually be produced, there are overseas suppliers who have the correct shades needed, or it would be easier to source the correct colours if it were being made in large quantities.

The size of the pillow is approx. 30cm in size. Ideal for children to hug. It was a bit on the small side for me. But I think it would be the perfect size for young children. 

I also made a label that would be attached to the pillow. This serves as an anchor to attach the swing tag, as well as promotion of the UpsideDowns logo. 

The swing tags were relatively simple. An image on one side and the information on the back. They are attached with string currently, but depending on manufacturing they could be attached using other methods, like those plastic cables. 

Today we presented to the class where we were up to with our brand extensions and touchpoints. It was also a valuable session to see what the other teams had come up with for their NGO and also where they were at. I think its safe to say Chelsea and I are at a good stage in our project. We’ve made a start on everything, and we we’re able to show that which enabled us to get some good feedback.

From what I can remember these are the points brought up:

Wristbands : good that we were mocking it up and getting a better visual sense of what it looks like even if we haven’t yet finished it (in particular the display box). Everything was looking on brand, just that with the design to use only white and blue straps. And to just change the grey text on the white strap to blue. This makes it less harsh and would make it more on brand.

This wasn’t brought up from our presentation, but from another team’s presentation – we thought a carry bag for the glasses would be something we could also design for. So in addition to the range of designed glasses, even for those who bought standard glasses, but donated a pair to a child with down syndrome, we would package their standard glasses in an UpsideDowns glasses case and carry bag.

The only other point was about our video. The colour scheme wasn’t quite there yet with the brand. We’ve obviously done quite a bit of work trying to get the colour palette right. Such as turning it a bit abstract (as below) rather than realistically green for grass, blue for sky, etc. 

Anna suggested we can still go for the pastel abstract colours, they did in fact match the tone of the brand, however we should align it more with the brand colours of yellow and blue by making the large areas of colour in yellow and blue. We tried this quickly after the presentations and got the ‘ok!’ from both Anna and Eden.

Chelsea will be pushing forward with the animation, while I will be doing the illustrations for the storybook. These seem to be our biggest two tasks. The other collateral are about half done, and we will be dividing them between us to finish up bit by bit over the next few weeks.