Open University Concept

Hi,
I am doing a design course with the OU and had to come up with a concept, I can up with a Defender to keep forever. Please look at my poster and leave comments.
Thanks

So you selling them then? Is this SPAM? Honestly does not look anything special design wise.

Looks like an ad you would pick up from a show, but the piccie are obviously photoshopped.

Good luck with it.

Cheers

No SPAM, just a concept I had made up.

bigjak said:

No SPAM, just a concept I had made up.

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Ok, then my thoughts about the product. If I picked up your poster at a show.

Over priced.
What is a full service package ?

Honestly the ad does not work for me except it looks flashy.

Cheers

If you buy the full service package it would be guaranteed for as long as you own it. ‘Lifetime’ guarantee.

bigjak said:

If you buy the full service package it would be guaranteed for as long as you own it. ‘Lifetime’ guarantee.

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TBH, sounds like a gimmick. Not something I would be interested in, even if I was , how would it be covered when you went out of business? I would want the full guarantee in writing to be gone over by a legal rep before buying a unit because of it.

Cheers

So are we commenting on the quality of the image/design or the idea of the package?

If i'm honest the image needs a lot of work.

The concept is flawed.
Love to know how you will perform the lifetime warranty?

Hicap phill said:

The concept is flawed.
Love to know how you will perform the lifetime warranty?

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Probably eight pages of "subject to terms and conditions"

Not overly difficult, and I would say would be a sensible if it was a lifetime for the original owner, ie the warranty is not passed on. Only the same as Halfords offering free brake pad changes if you pay for the first one for as long as you own the vehicle.
In relation to the poster itself, I would change a couple of those images to mid-build. Maybe a picture of a shiny galv'd chassis, rolling, or with new bulkhead etc.
The £75,000 is a bit rich though. Companies who have build up a reputation may be able to charge that, but a start-up, you'd be lucky to get £40,000 per car.

Well out of the 4 pics I think the one on the right is the best. it sort of portrays the the country life that townies aspire to! the married couple looks like shes married a 70s porn star!

As for the lifetime warranty on a defender, are you mad? I dont care how good it is when you build it, its going to go wrong and its how you deal with that, that will make or break your reputation.
As an example the gearbox dies, its a recon from say Ashcrofts, who pays for the recovery/strip and investiagtion/repair/repair and delivery?

Sadly it appears lots of others already do the same works.

I reckon the long term money is in the early 90s/110s

Nowadays dealing with real live people is a kin nightmare and theres some right dodgy ****s out there looking for a free ride.

I also reckon the economy is sliding, maybe not crashing, but I keep picking up little signs here and there.

All I can say is good luck and be wary of everybody even the apparently nice ones.

Get those nicey nice people and dogs out of the way, they are blocking the view

A good starting point, imho. but I would go for the upgrading of customers' vehicles, rather than sourcing them.
Pics of the process - rolling chassis etc.
What are you offering in terms of painting?
Family pic needs a horsebox attached.
Tweak the "lifetime guarantee" aspect in line with the likes of Halfords (as already mentioned)

Of course, this would not be original - plenty of companies already offering such - and if the point of the OU exercise is to be totally original, then feel free to ignore the above

Everyone seems to be criticising your concept here but am I right in thinking that this is an exercise and the topic is just something you chose to base your project on? In which case it doesn't really matter what it says, it can offer 300tdi Defender's that do 100mpg for all we care.

Are you therefore asking for "public" opinion on the literature, layout, image of the poster?

Being in business myself I know image is everything, I think the background image is unsuitable, it should be a country image or an engineering/mechanical image. It looks a little too "softened" from the rugged image that the Defender stands for. The background image would be great if you were selling office products, or legal services as it conjures up images of organisation, professionalism and clarity.

Interestingly there is no business name or title clearly that grabs you. I don't have a clue what you are called unless I go by the email address or the opening sentence in the paragraph. You need identity and grip points.

discomania said:

Everyone seems to be criticising your concept here but am I right in thinking that this is an exercise and the topic is just something you chose to base your project on? In which case it doesn't really matter what it says, it can offer 300tdi Defender's that do 100mpg for all we care.

Are you therefore asking for "public" opinion on the literature, layout, image of the poster?

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That's what i asked, the layout and formatting of that image isn't great. Icons in the bottom right aren't aligned or in a uniform size, images are... pretty meh and the backgrounds resolution is low, it can be out of focus sure, in fact i would suggest that it is, however that's just low resolution. Where the OP said it was a course in design i assumed the image was the important part.

Trench Rat said:

That's what i asked, the layout and formatting of that image isn't great. Icons in the bottom right aren't aligned or in a uniform size, images are... pretty meh and the backgrounds resolution is low, it can be out of focus sure, in fact i would suggest that it is, however that's just low resolution. Where the OP said it was a course in design i assumed the image was the important part.

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Yeah, I think that is it, sorry I added to my post while you were replying, it expanded a little.

I made up a form last week and sent it to our marketing guy, he came back with the shiny polished PDF that looked excellent, fact is, these guys earn their money on image and detail. Our poster is just learning this game and I think he is making a good start.

discomania said:

Our poster is just learning this game and I think he is making a good start.

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Agreed, however it has a very MS Paint look to it. I did my degree in something totally different to design like this, however i've had to make up a few corporate posters and things for events at work.

OP
As Disco said, think about the background, it's not land rover related at all. Linked to the background, think about how the images in the foreground react to the background. You've got the words DEFENDER seemingly randomly placed on the right with a black background to the image. That's not ideal at all, the black background makes it look fresh off of cooltext.com. You want a transparent background .png file, alternatively, google the defender font, download it and make your own. The company logos in the bottom right aren't aligned and also are not uniform in size. If you're using something like MS Publisher, there's an auto snap/guide for aligning images to images around them. Use it. It'll make it look neater, maybe also put them next to eachoter without a space between, at the moment they look a little haphazardly dropped.

The text in the bottom left isn't a great font, it's not a good colour either and there's a little too much text.

Look at apple posters, less is more and they're clean with a minimalist look.

this one is a little old but still:



RE: the text on the bottom left:

Try to cut it down, we don't need to know everything, that would be mentioned when they look up the website! You need fewer but larger words, statements that are quick to the eye.

just my 2 pence.

Thanks, I do have a long way to go and the images are cut and paste using very basic options, My course is design for innovation where I think the idea outweighs the image quality. I will review layout and content.
The price was a shoot to the moon figure instead of £XX,XXX, I will be looking at this too.
Yes, the lifetime is a bit gimmicky and would only appeal to the Chelsea tractor market and would be subject to a mountain of small print.
Again thanks all.

bigjak said:

Chelsea tractor market and would be subject to a mountain of small print.

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They'd only keep them until the next model comes out, cheap "lifetime" there.

You're on to something good there...

I actually think the poster is quite good. I assume it’s supposed to make Mr Family Man/Woman fed up with his/her jellymould Audi/BMW etc, want to buy one?
For that you have to appeal to the sense of adventure and excitement.
Although they will most likely never go any further off road than the local football field, you want to make them feel that they “could” drive it to Cape Town.
So you have a picture of the Defender doing family stuff, as you have, and in the background it’s crossing a desert.
Forget the lifetime service plan it won’t help sell a vehicle like this, by the time they get to service costs their mind is pretty much made up.
Sure it’s a bit cheesy but aren’t all the “adventure” car adverts? Showing some sh1tbox bouncing along a rugged track in the middle of nowhere.
You want to make them think
“Forget that rubbish, this is the real deal”