P.S. - Post Script by Martina Bonetti

POST SCRIPT

CONTENTS 01 Discover

p 2 _ Area of Interest p 6 _ Initial Research p 8 _ Re-start Research

02 Define 03 Develop

p 12 _ Ideas p 14 _ The Opportunity

p 20 _ Manifesto p 22 _ Existing Servicesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Lacks p 30 _ Brand DNA p 31 _ Brand Definition

04 Deliver

p 34 _ Division of the Work p 35 _ Parcels p 40 _ Brand Image p 42 _ Exposition

05 Reflection

p 44 _ About the Project p 45 _ Improvements

BRAND-X

The Brief A brand is a pattern of artifacts, behaviors and concepts. Design the launch of a new brand, whose inspiration has to be one of the Seven Deadly Sins. It should be recognisable, involving an innovation for the market -that follows behaviors- or for the offer -that creates new behaviors. Think of what’s coming up in the near future about trends. “How will people live?” “What they will care about?” “What will they need and desire?” The project involves a group and an individual part. The former is Brand DNA and the latter is a product or a service, as a personal developement. The three individual works need to be consistent between each other and with the Brand DNA.

DISCOVER _ Area of interest Our Deadly Sin is GLUTTONY. The first thing we was researching into the word “Gluttony” It is in general “more than you need and something you can’t stop”. Is the opposite of modesty and self-control. From Medieval Era it started having a negative meaning because of the hunger and the poverty of time. It can be meant as hunger for news, knowledge or money. What makes Gluttony different from Greed is the consumption. The latter is in fact about collecting and keeping something for yourself in a very egoistic way. The former is instead about an insatiable hunger that doesn’t let you store anything.

GLUT

TONY

CONSUMPTION

Egoism

EGOISM

DEBAUCHERY

HUNGER

Luxorious LUXORIOUS

Over-indulgence OVER-INDULGENCE Over-abundance OVER-ABUNDANCE

SHAMELESS

_ Initial research More people are becoming poorer and less people are becoming richer. All the natural resources are going to the rich. Solutions for the poor can be DIY (healthcare, home&living, food,clothes, power&technology), traditional ways or cradle design. People are addicted to being updated. They put their personal infos on the internet. Who knows has the power.

First Opportunity Resources are running out and enterprises steal each other resources. Paying more for raw materials, products get more expensive. The rich can feel the change but they are not affected by it. The poor canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t afford anything.

Crisis in economy has finally ended. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a boom and everyone can spend more. Everyone keep buying always more because they want to catch up with the time they lost. Suddenly resources run out without anyone realising it. They were so excited to afford buying that they get blind on resources.

... but... This view turned out to be too narrow, so we started again researching

Second Opportunity The world keeps going as it is, so rich people show to be the most gluttonous. Conspicuous consumption becomes the new way of spending money. With the crisis it gets more important to show your status, showing off to not look poor.

Gluttony for purchases is new society’s itch. People are always trying to satisfy it mostly buying expensive goods. But this feeling can’t last long and soon enough the itch will be back, so there’s need of a less consumeristic way to scratch that itch.

_ Re-start research In five years: How is gluttony manifested in society?

SOCIAL

How will people live?

TECHNOLOGY

What will they care about?

ECONOMY

What will they need and desire?

CULTURE

SOCIAL

TECHNOLOGY

Conspicuous consumption. The need of stimulation, the urge for anticipation and surprising, inspiring events continues to grow because of increasing use of social media and smartphones/ laptops/ computers. “Anti-Technology trend”: The growing trend of mindfulness, yoga and meditation grows and shows that people actually need a break from all stimulation and impressions that the social media and consumption gives.

There will be products that makes it easier to consume, spend money, online shopping will increase.

There’s growing use of the socials to keep updated on the news. Everyone is connected 24/7. Privacy is becoming a utopia because of the increase of personal data on the web. The personal image of everyone is being sold and over-exposed. The most influenceable are the teenagers, where youth culture is loosing itself into technology.

There will also be products that stimulate us a lot, like games or other entertaining technology that will make us use and feed our “need” for gluttony.

ECONOMY

CULTURE

Increasing gaps between the richer and the poorer because of overconsumption and capitalism.

The education of children becomes more difficult due to the fact of the information society and the problem that children focus alot on their smartphones instead of learning from the teacher. Obesity and health problems connected to the consumption of smatphones/computer use will increase.

The technology gets cheaper and more people can afford to be â&#x20AC;&#x153;connectedâ&#x20AC;?.

A continuing approach of selfishness and individualism may affect the culture and might cause backlash? People will be faster and more informed and aware of their present society

How gluttony manifest itself a social trend?

SHOPPING

INFORMATION

We didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t look deeply into NUTRITION because it was the easiest way to think of gluttony, while we wanted to go over.

IDEAL-LIFESTYLE

MATERIAL CONSUMPTION

SHOPPING

INFORMATION

FEATURES - Affected by uses of society. - To “cure” boredom. - Gives the itch. - Gives addiction. - Makes you feel good. - Affected by other’s attention.

CONTEXTUAL PHENOMENON - Ownership/Appereance. - Desire. - Trend consuming. - Need to be feel better, not just to be better. - Insatiable.

CONTEXTUAL PHENOMENON - Ownership/Appereance. - Desire. - Trend consuming. - Need to be better and feel better - Insatiable - Increases social gap

OPPORTUNITY GLUTTONY FOR A PRODUCT To catch what makes a product worth the gluttony. (eg. Waiting, expectations, unboxing, revelation, matching the idea to the reality, curiosity,..).

OPPORTUNITY GLUTTONY FOR NEWS People are addicted to being updated. They put their personal infos on the internet. Who knows has the power. Privacy is become aways more just a utopia.

MARKET To make it better you just have to eliminate the bad feeling after the over-consumption

MARKET Help people of different ages dealing with tech&infos

TONE OF VOICE Friendly, surprising, curious, wise

TONE OF VOICE Reassuring, friendly, caring, trustworthy

IDEAL-LIFESTYLE FEATURES - Affected by uses of society. - Gives the itch. - Gives addiction. - Makes you feel good. - Affected by other’s attention. CONTEXTUAL PHENOMENON - No ownership - No desire. - Trend consuming. - Need to be feel better, not just to be better. - Insatiable. OPPORTUNITY GLUTTONY FOR HEALTHY IMITATION Paradoxally you can never get enough of healthy living. (eg. Celebrity diets, fitness,..) curiosity,..). MARKET Help people with “healthy addictions”, probably inherited by the society, whose biggest care is how you look like TONE OF VOICE Reassuring, friendly, caring, trustworthy

MATERIAL CONSUMPTION FEATURES - Affected by uses of society. CONTEXTUAL PHENOMENON - Ownership. - No desire. - Needed by enterprises to create trends. - Insatiable. - Increases economic gap. OPPORTUNITY GLUTTONY FOR RESOURCES Resources are running out and enterprises steal them from each other. Paying more for raw materials, products get more expensive. The rich can feel the change but they’re not affected by it. The poor can’t afford anything. MARKET Help people to consume in a more sustainable way. (eg. Creating their own goods, using DIY or cradle techniques) TONE OF VOICE Wise, dependable, reassuring, trustworthy

DEFINE _ Ideas Looking for opportunities, we decided to focus on the GLUTTONY FOR A PRODUCT, being the strongest issue of modern societyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s consumes. Inside this area we thought how we can enhance gluttony in a controlled and safe way:

First Idea We thought of a new slow service, that doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t use new technologies. The image we had in mind to describe it was a mechanism of moving gears, which makes you curious about how it works.

Second Idea Gluttony could support peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s creativity. Since they always want more from what they buy, a way of getting everything you can is enjoying even the process of creating the object. This will make you feel less bored by it.

Third Idea Letting people see the creation process, even not being really a part of it, can satisfy the hunger for infos. We thought of sneak peaks, anticipations, exclusive contents, like echograms of your product before coming to you. 13

The opportunity

The Delivery Service We decided to focus on the creation of a DELIVERY SERVICE, that enhances the sense of expectation before receiving a parcel. We want to make people enjoy gluttony in a controlled way, which is being excited for what you already bought and keep that feeling until the moment when the purchase really comes to you. We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t contrast gluttony. We just pass from fast to slow and enjoyable.

_ The Moment

_ The Occasion

Maria is surfing on facebook, but she feels bored by the newsfeed and feels like doing some online shopping. She goes in to a page with a lot of clothes on sale and starts to feel excited when she pictures her self in the new clothes. She imagines herself going to a party in that dress, she imagines how the texture of the fabric feels and finally she clicks “buy” and use her credit card. She has butterflies in her stomach and her anticipation grows. Now she can’t wait for the day when the box is delivered and she gets to open it.

But what happens after the purchase? Online shopping has made very easy to spend money almost unconciously. You just make a few clicks and then it’s done. Is it us who actually have control over our own choice or is it the technology who makes the decisions for us? Do we posses our goods our we just get possessed by them? Maria doesn’t know where the clothes are made, who made the clothes and under which conditions. When she pays with her credit card it could be very difficult to get a sense of how much money she actually spent and if her budget allows the purchase. In the moment of her purchase the largest drive for her is the excitment of consuming, the crave for the product and the distraction from boredom also plays a part. Soon enough she will forget about this feeling and she’ll feel the need of buying again. How could we help people make concious choices? How can they keep the excitment feeling after they shop to avoid buying more in short time?

_ The Values

_ The Tone of Voice

Expectancy

Sentimental

Curiosity

Personal

Transparency

Playful

Trust

Friendly

DEVELOP _ Manifesto What we aim:

IMAGINE if the delivery man wore clothes of purple velvet and delivered you a package in a golden box. IMAGINE if he asked you how your day had been and smiled at you when he handed over the pack. IMAGINE if when you opened the box, there was a smell reminding you of the garden you used to play in as a child. WE AIM to put the customer first and we truly value the experience of our service in detail. WE donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t WANT to give just a little extra, we want to give an extraordinary experience to our customers. WE STRIVE to give you that feeling you had as a kid when waiting for a Christmas gift, and we want to keep that emotion for a long time. WE CHERISH waiting, we take our time to tailor the perfect present or special delivery together with you.

What we offer:

We offer a personal and customizable service. We’re always keeping the client informed and involved through a playful story. We take care of our customer, his mail and their specific needs. We’re giving the chance to get a better online shopping experience trough an easy, friendly and clean website. Due to clear conditions of purchase, the only surprise is the one you choose to have.

What we look up to:

Using references to describe the kind of image we want to have, we want to create a playful Wes Anderson style. We try to push it to the limit of deliveries. We’re looking for a customization of the experience with the object.

_ Existing servicesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; lacks

Why do people dislike delivery services?

How can we improve them?

Box It doesn’t match what contains. It can arrive dirty, wet, broken, ecc.. It can cause foldings on “don’t fold” items. Because of its size, it’s hard to recycle. Foam balls in it can be annoying. It can be difficult to open. It contains avoidable packaging.

Driver

Company

He can be rube. He doesn’t take particular care of the box, that may be fragile. He can communicate unsatisfaction. He can be disconnected from the company. He’s not chosen for the delivery, he gets a random area in every shift.

They’re never on time. If home owner is out, they bring the parcel to the warehouse. Deliver just from 9am to 5pm. Recipient can’t choose the time. The drop off is unsafe in a bin or at the next door. They contact unknown neighbours. Any person can sign for the withdrawal. Signing on a tablet is uncomfortable. They are difficult to contact. There’s a lot of fuel consumption with the trucks.

After Bad post office service. Excitement of purchase ends in disappointment. It turns out too expensive for the offered service. No one ask for delivery feedbacks. There’s no story. There’s no control. There isn’t knowledge about the process.

Box

Driver

It shows the character of the content. It arrive in perfect esthetic conditions. The item inside is never ruined with foldings. The recepient is helped to open it. The driver can take it away to recycle it. Everything inside it is re-usable o recyclable.

He has to be polite and happy. He knows the type of content to take special care of the box. He can adjust to the character of the content.

Company Let you decide the delivery time. Doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t leave the box to anyone but you. Is easy to contact. Doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t use tablets for deliveries.

After Not use the post office. Service worth the price. Ask for feedbacks. Tell a story to keeo the excitement. Inform on the box and let have control.

Why people dislike online shopping?

How can we improve it?

Buying What arrives doesn’t match the thing you bought. You can’t see the material and the real color or feel the fabric online. You’re not always sure of the quantity in the pack you buy.

Conditions Overseas price may vary on time scale. The price can change upon interest. Shipping price is told just at the end of the process. Customer can get yhe wrong product.

Website It’s complicated to connect to your internet banking. It can have difficulties in processing. It can give bad shopping suggestions. Its refreshes can delete your shopping cart list. It can feel untrustworthy. It can show too many ads. Its homepage can be complicated.

Experience The contact is impersonal, there’s no one you can talk to or meet. There’s tension between market and supermarket. It can fell bad or stressful. It’s not like a real shopping experience. The customer feels they just want his money. There’s guilt when the customer gets a cold message confirming how much he spent. 28

Buying Better pictures of the product can make more clear its shape, color, material, size and quantity.

Conditions There’s clear agreement on the price at the beginning of the process. Purchasing is made clearer in every step.

Website There’s easy connection to customer’s internet banking. There aren’t intrusive ads. There’s a better matching for shopping suggestions. The homepage is easy and the process is clear. No random item gets deleted from your shopping cart.

Experience There’s persona contact with the people behind the brand. The customer can enjoy buying because it’s not just a transaction. There’s no asettic bill that makes customers feel guilty, but an excited confirmation of the purchase.

_ Brand DNA

POST SCRIPT

_ Brand Definition

How we make the expectation grow: Everything will be very emotional, a personal attachment to your object before it comes knowing its delivery story. Storytelling is a fundamental element of the brand.

Our semantics & coherent product range: Creation of strong coordination between packaging, outfit and vehicle. Vehicles will be vintage cars. They will produce curiosity in people around, so this will make us publicity. We don’t sell ourselves to huge companies but just for customer-tocustomer transactions. We’ll relate to little independent shops, so customers can buy little gifts through us (e.g. flowers) to accompany their mailed objects.

Our service: We’ll have a shop (similar to our exposition stand) where you can ask infos and touch our product, an online shop where you can book the mailing service and an app/website part where you can follow the story of your book. Our service will be thought for customerto-customer transactions (e.g. Etsy) or mailing between the two individuals (e.g. birthday gifts). Possibility in local shop-to-customer. We will not have social media profiles, to keep an anti-tech feature. Our only presence will be the one made by people who talk about us, posting about the experiences they live receiving our deliveries. Our service will be totally customizable for mean of transport, delivery guy and packaging of what is sent. Every decision you make in the customization of the delivery become a characteristic of the story that let you follow the box.

NAME We are P.S. “POST SCRIPT” is a simple and reminescent name. It recalls letter writing tradition, but it’s also acronym for Postal Service. Traditionally the P.S. is used in personal correspondence, to leave an emotional message afterwards. Our service will allow people to add something at the end of their mail, without them writing anything else.

LOGO The aim is to create a shape which reminds of timbres and stamps, keeping a decorative but clean taste. 30

SLOGAN “WE DON’T JUST CARRY, WE CARE” expresses our idea of nearness to the customer and his goods. It will convey our personal attention and careful commitment.

_ Brand Definition

Colors: From all Wes Anderson inspirational colors, we chose a palette of 5. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re all different tones, still linked by a shade of patina. From the basic palette, we developed 5 shades which will be used to customise the service. For every motif we created a persona and a poster that could represent him and his reaction in the moment of the bespoke delivery.

RED. Romantic surprise for anniversaries. BEIGE. Elegant surprise for formal occasions. YELLOW. Funny surprise to amaze people. GREEN. Creative surprise to engage smart receivers. BLUE. Cheer-up surprise for sad occasions.

DELIVER _ Division of the Work We split the project into three parts:

1. Boxes & Preparation of Delivery 2. Service 3. Delivery Act I got the first one, comprehensive of: a) the design of the parcels b) the brand image

GETTING TIRED

order i

re c

eivin g

u sin g

g itin wa

ed or ing ipp

gettin gb

WANTING

The scheme represents how gluttony works in phases. Our aim is to enhance the wait, to enjoy more the usage and to eliminate or at least reduce the boredom, that induces new purchases. Each of our individual parts will be

CRAVING essential to reach a common a result:

the design of the boxes and the delivery act will control the receiving moment, while the service will control the whole process.

_ Parcels All parcels will be composed by a cardboard box, envelopes attached to the interior part, letters with a story in the envelopes and an inner more little box, to put the real sent object. I created the LETTERS, the BOXES and the MOTIF PACKAGES.

Chapter One

Letters

To enhace the expectation, letters will tell the receiver the story of the box and its content. The tale will be inside the parcel. It has to be read before discovering the object and it is divided into chapters to enlong the unbonxing moment. With a playful style, they will be a good memory to keep. The text and the design of the letters have to reflect the mood of the parcel.

Boxes

First of all I tried to analyse the unboxing feeling through the famous Net-a-Porter parcels. The bespoke esthetic and the consistency of what is received, make the customer want to keep the box. It reaches a good satisfaction level, but more handmade details could develop more attachment to it. I tried to use the concept of Mystery Box to help me develop and engagement between the parcel and the receiver. In fact, people are so addicted to the sense of expectation that they buy even general mystery boxes on the internet. The box has to represent infinite possibilities, hope and potential. It becomes catalyzer of imagination, giving sense of exalted anticipation. The box will have to open by itself in front of the recipient. It will be made of cardboard, without glue points and just with foldings or cuts.

The box has to be kept because: - It has cool packaging - The single box can turn into something - All boxes join a master plan of reuse

I chose to create different sizes of boxes, one proportional to the other, to store the object sent. In order to do this, every package will contain a smaller casing, consistent with the style of the parcelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s content.

Motif packages All the five customisable moods will have particular boxes. They follow a motif made of style and color to make it coherent. To contain the update letters, will be thought a series of consistent envelopes.

Romantic

Cheer-up

Crazy

_ Brand Image Materials A recurrent theme will be the color match between cardboard&wrapping and white&red string and red wax. Red velvet is the material which guided the style of our brand.

Launch event Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to send to pinners and youtubers our press boxes to let us know online, to the public weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re aiming to reach. #ThinkOutsideTheBox could be a social campaign that challenge people reusing our boxes and posting the result online.

Communication We decided to have a website, where customers can get infos about us and book our service. This is going to be our only online presence, because to add a more personal, unique and bespoke taste, we want to stay anti-tech. This will reflect on our choice of means of transport: vintage vans, renewed and with our logo. They will be very bold and noticeable on the street, so people will probably get curious and take pictures to post on social media. This is going to be a way of being present without really being there. A free marketing idea.

Props Little paper and cardboard devices will be used to show our customization possibilities. A golden stamp will be used to seal wax our parcels.

Flyers To give informations to customers coming to our shop or to give updates to senders of the parcels, I thought of flyers with envelope shape. Inside can be found the story of our brand in chapters. The last one is covered, as a surprise, and behind the paper can be found our business card for any further interest.

_ Exposition As an overall view of the project, for the exposition we decided to present ourselves as employees of the local Post Script pop up store. This will show what we do in a clearer way than just explaining, integrating the storytelling character that we want to have. We want to design the exwperience.

In the shop there will be available mockups of our products for the customers to touch and try. Us, the employees, will be wearing fancy clothes in one of our brandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s colors. Clocks and maps will be on our walls. A brass bell will be on our desk.

On the wall behind us there will be a poster, replicating the layout of the update letters. It will explain our story and the creation of the brand. It will be told in a friendly and playful way. At first read it will seem all fantasy, but re-reading it in the optic of our project development, the metaphores can become clear.

REFLECTION _ About the Project At the beginning of the project I was mostly worried about the individual development of the product. Having studied two years of Communication, I was confident on the branding part but lost on the product designing one. The Deadly Sin of my group was Gluttony, which I quite liked being very gluttonous myself. As we met to discuss how to start off our project, we all agreed on not focusing on nutrition. We didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to come out with the most plain and obvious solution, but we wanted to play with our sin and find and intriguing way to develop it. As soon as I started working with my group I realised how differently we were used to work. Instead of researching into the topic we were given, I tried to push the group straightforward to the solution. This led us to a first presentation not focused enough on what we had been asked. The second week we started everything all over, trying to understand the society around us and how Gluttony fits it.

_ Improvements Surrendering to the GSA method, I discovered that exploring different opportunities made lateral thinking easier, creating original connections and metaphors. We chose the Delivery Service opportunity with common agreement, for everyone it was the most interesting and exciting. From the very beginning we clarified our aim, to work for the same goal. Sometimes we had to discuss on how to reach it, but these arguments were addressed to find the best option, so they were positive for our design process. I think I had a strong impact on our brand and I can recognise myself in that work. I’m really proud of how our idea came to life and how people reacted to the spirit of Post Script. The best accomplishment was the final presentation at the exhibition opening: we didn’t have needed to explain our brand values, they were spreading from our performance and people got them instinctively.

The study of how the service works could be improved. We didn’t go deep into what happens between the order and the delivery moment, so that part could be expanded and clarified. We started studying the user journey, but we just analysed what the user does and not how we reach him during the shipping process. In my individual development I think I could improve the materials used. In the short time we were given to refine our products, I couldn’t look for a finer cardboard than the one available in the workshops. A longer project term could have given me the possibility to develop all the five motives boxes mockups, having already designed them but missing time in the last week to make them. Being the first time I had to actually build something, I’m satisfied of what I could accomplish with the wax stamp and the parcels. A bit more experience will help me in the future to have more precise results.

Martina Bonetti Product Design Year 3

The Glasgow School of Art, Session 2014/2015, Term 1