Saturday, August 30, 2008

Week 3

Guest lecture on Intellectual Property. I understand that IP is important but I have difficulties putting it into perspective. The terminology confuses me and I find it disheartening that an employer has so much ownership over your ideas. Even the ideas you develop on your own time!

Our presentaion went like this.

[Tara]
For the project, our team (Jake, Pete and myself) will be completing a restaurant design and branding for a Mexican restaurant. The restaurant, named the Mexican Bean, will be an a la carte style restaurant with a casual atmosphere. The Mexican look has influences of Toltec, Inca, Spanish and French cultures. The style is bold and decorative with expressive use of vivid colours. Mexican decors are both fun to be in and stylishly practical.

[Pete]
For the project we will be creating a logo and brand then using these to create restaurant materials (such as menus, coasters, table numbers and reserved signs) as well as advertising materials (such as business cards, flyers, brochures, adverts for newspapers and phone books and a website).

[Jake]
As well as branding we will also design the layout and physical appearance of the restaurant, creating floor plans, colour charts, sketches and a 3D model. To create these will we have to take into consideration the Mexican culture and restaurant requirements.

[Tara]
We chose to complete this style of project because with rising interest rates businesses need to put increased emphasis on their restaurant design and branding in order to attract new and existing clientele. This means that companies offering these services will be experiencing increased business opportunities. After graduation, Pete and myself are interested in moving into this type of work.

[Pete]
The Mexican culture has many well-liked meals including fajitas, nachos, burritos, enchiladas, chimichangas and tacos and cultural based restaurants are popular dinning choices. There is a plentiful supply of Italian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese and Indian restaurants, however a lack of Mexican restaurants, particularly within the Brisbane and Ipswich regions.

[Jake]
Logos: colours, icons – symbolic of Mexican culture

[Tara]
Menus: styles, folds, sizes

[Pete]
Uniforms: smart casual, continuation of colours, featured logo. Name badges

[Jake]
Floor plans: sketches, what features we need (kitchen, bathrooms, tables, chairs, bar, front desk) flow, clashes, seat approx 50

[Tara]
Architectural traits which we would like to use.
Doorways, textured walls, tiles, wooden furniture, cozy, homely, rustic

[Pete]
Finish it off


Some of the images from our presentation.


Week 2

Week 2 was all about Strategic Planning. SWOT analysis & SMART goals.
Discussed ideas which we had come up with and decided on a restaurant design project. Choosing a project was really difficult. It was recommended that the team selects a project related to our interests and what we would like to go into after graduation. Which is good in theory but difficult to do when you're not sure what you would like to do after graduation, or if what you want to do after graduation has to relation to Multimedia at all.

This website (http://www.quantifiedmarketing.com/) is great and I'm hoping that we can get our project to similar levels - of course we will be doing our project minus a client. I find it interesting how they do everything. Concept development; design; promotions; public relations; marketing research and strategy; planning and financial consulting; and franchising.

Week 1

Week 1 was all about professionalism - considering ourselves as professionals, not just students.

Also needed to develop a project concepts. We decided to spend the weeking thinking up ideas sepearately then come back together next week and decide on a project concept.

These are the ideas I came up with.