Design Internship - Pigeon Branding and Design - Essay Example

?Pigeon Branding + Design About Pigeon Branding + Design Pigeon* Branding +design is a branding and package design agency based in Quebec and Oakville, Ontario. Pigeon*Branding design was basically founded in Montreal in 1977, with its original name as “Tomas Pigeon Design Group,” by Tomas Pigeon. In 1990, Tomas Pigeon shifted the firm’s location to Oakville, Ontario and reopened the office in Quebec in 1995. Owning as well as integrating both offices has allowed the firm to offer comprehensive bicultural design vision to its clients, and this has remained as one of the significant factors for the firm’s success. The unique selling proposition of the firm primarily relates with its brand identities and package design. The company is specialized in package design and creating corporate identities for house brands or food brands. The company has successfully served a number of Canada’s leading brands such as shopper’s drug mart, Tim Horton, Kraft etc. The firm has engaged itself in activities of designing and redesigning for those brands, thus clearly building up the brand images for those clients. As Pigeon’s primary role is package designing, the company was able to gain a profound understanding of corporate identity and consumers as well as become an expert in identity creation and management. Pigeon takes an integrated and comprehensive approach on identity creation and has been known to satisfy its clients by helping them to build clear and strategic brand images. As of the present, Pigeon Branding + Design is operating two offices under the management of the firm’s president, John Nishida. While one office is located in Oakville the other is based in Quebec. Each office has about 50 employees and since it deals with several big companies, it is divided into different departments such as design team, production team, client service team and financial team. Possessing different departments and a clear division of labor makes the company more functional so that people can concentrate in their own area and work more efficiently towards achieving their specific goals. Responsibilities During my four-week internship at Pigeon*, I worked with the shoppers and Tim Horton design team and have been assigned with a variety of tasks. My primarily responsibilities included assisting graphic designers and helping them with design explorations as well as concept development processes. My main tasks were concerned with design and images research, concept developments and exploration, and also designing mock-ups. Research I have been assigned two types of research tasks, the first being stock image research and, the second, comparative research. Stock images researches are highly time consuming and very crucial in the process of developing concepts as well as exploring package designs. Most projects that Pigeon* branding+ design have are package design projects for foods and house goods. Possessing the right image is very important so that when the image is confirmed, photographers can shoot the photos with the actual product based on the stock images used in the design concepts. So during the task, when a designer asked me to find the images of garnish for crackers or peanut for peanut butter, I searched on stock photo sites and collected the best images I could find, and make a PDF file out of it. This proved to be helpful for the designers, as they could look at all the images in one page and choose the best image from the available options. The second task, involving the comparative research, was related with finding out what other companies have done for their brand image. This process also included collecting elements that can give more ideas on the project and keeping them in a specific folder in the Pigeon server, which is accessible to the respective personnel. For this research, I had to find the container structure design that already existed in as well as one which could be used as a container for dipping sauce. It was fun while researching it, because I needed to approach it differently and not think about the common dipping sauce container. Concept development Concept development and design exploration relates with more refined idea sketches. This process helps to develop design concepts and suggest the visual direction for design that is to be presented to the clients. Throughout my internship period, I was given three design projects, which were peanut butter package design for simply food, smile cookie mobile design for Tim Horton and paper towel and toilet tissue for Brezza. When I was given briefing for these projects, I had to come up with best two or three design concepts by the given deadline, which was also the date when a meeting was to be held. Most of the times, for each projects, certain color schemes were already chosen by clients and sometimes typeface and images were also already given, so I did not have much freedom in terms of creativity, however, I tried to make it as creative as possible within those clearly defined boundaries. The design project that I enjoyed the most was premium toilet paper and paper towel package design for Brezza. It was my last project and I got it around the time just before my internship ended. This project was given to me after the first design concept was presented to the clients and the consumer research on these design concepts had already been conducted. The feedback was generally positive, however, the consumers found that there is some difference between regular line and premium line. So I had to come up with a design that was not too different from what it already was but something that gives it a more unified look. So I tried to unify them by using the same color scheme and incorporating the pattern that was used in the regular line into the premium line, but by adding gradient, I tried to give it a more premium look. My work was hardly selected by the clients, but I enjoyed the experience a lot and I also learnt lots of things while I was a part of the design processes. Making mock-ups As part of the internship process I was asked to make mock-ups for approved package designs by clients. When the senior designers asked me to make mock-ups, they first printed the confirmed designs for me, so all I had to do was just cut them and build the mock-ups accordingly, which I thought was a very simple and easy task. It was a very good learning experience as I learnt a lot about the actual package designing through these mock-up exercises. Communication This internship has clearly highlighted the importance of communication skills to a graphic designer. I was assigned several design projects, which involved working together with Katie Bloomfield, a creative director at Pigeon*. Since she was the one who briefed me about the projects, I frequently reported to her about my progress on those tasks and clarified any doubts that I had as well as got feedback from her about my work. The works as well as the progress of works are primarily discussed at meetings, as all the shoppers / Tim Horton team are present to express their views as well as give their feedbacks. Mostly two or three meetings are conducted before presenting the required design concepts to the clients. Presenting the work in the meeting gets more varied response and feedback as opposed to talking to a single person about the work. Usually two or three designers work on the same tasks regarding each project, so that different design concepts can be produced. During the meeting, each designer comes up with their top two or three concepts and presents them to the creative director who then gives them direction and suggestion about the designs. Furthermore having production team in the meeting is also helpful as they foresee the problems that might occur when the design is made practical and transformed into three dimensional figures, problems regarding availability of materials etc. Evaluation Pigeon is good place to work, especially for those who are interested in branding and package designing. Interning at Pigeon has rendered me an opportunity to learn about the industry in a deeper and more practical way. Since Pigeon works for well established brands with a clear cut image, it may be difficult for an individual to get much creative work and besides there are also a lot of restrictions present. However, watching their design processes provides the individuals with a better insight on how the industry works. In addition to learning about design work, one can also learn about building relationships as well as developing communication skills between people working in the organization. At Pigeon, an intern gets to work the same as junior designers, only the difference being that the intern’s work is not considered as much since they are new. However, the work done as an intern can be portrayed as experience in one’s portfolio, thus, this internship seems to be. Therefore, I recommend working at Pigeon to people who love package designing and want to learn more as well as experience the industry in an up-close manner. Reflection These four weeks of internship in the firm have taught me so much about the package design as well as how the design process works. Furthermore, it simply fascinated me to observe and learn the process of creating packages as well as seeing how the products’ package designs under a particular brand worked together as a system. Most of the times, consumers buy goods by brands, which makes the process of building really good and trustworthy branding images all the more important. The challenges I found here is that at most times, the design process is restricted and limited by the client’s preferences. Since I never had this much restriction on design projects while I was in school, sometimes I find it very frustrating that my choices are limited. However, on the other hand, what caught my attention was to know how so many different designs could work for the same brand image. During the process I also learnt how important communication skills are to a graphic designer. Since graphic designers work as a team, I found that discussing about designs and problems is highly significant in the design process, as clear communication between people can reduce the extra time and effort that might get wasted due to misunderstandings. The most relevant element in all of it that I have learnt is being responsible about the job. Meeting deadlines and completing assigned tasks is very crucial and any irresponsibility from the side of an individual could bring trouble to his or her colleagues as well as the organization as a whole. By being an intern at Pigeon* I have learnt a lot of things and this has made me realize how to prepare myself in order to become a good graphic designer. Even though I basically wanted to work more in the field of web designing or motion graphics after I graduate, this internship was definitely a very good experience and I am sure it would be helpful for my future career. Read More