Brief 4 - Childline - Evaluation

The illustrations placed in context show how it fits with the existing Childline brand and aesthetic, the designs don’t look out of place. Similarly, when looking at the gifs placed into the context where they are most likely going to be seen, such as the likes of the Child - line App, it means that even when children or teens are waiting or not necessarily at the centre of the Child-line social media channels, they still feel a part of that safe, welcoming environment.

The concept of representing feelings by focusing on the weather means the designs are relatable and don’t focus on specific worries or issues, meaning they can speak and reach out to everyone, especially the large range of ages. The designs also focus on the message of ‘show don’t tell’, as they are quite abstract, meaning they can be read into and are generalised to communicate to the spectrum of different ages, feelings and thoughts.

The illustrations and gifs are successful as they build on Child-line’s existing atmosphere of a welcoming environment and allow children and teens to be reassured. Especially as they are in keeping with the existing hand drawn feel, which speaks to the target audience on their level without being patronising. The designs are versatile and can easily be scaled up or down, individual shapes can be taken out and used in various ways across the range of platforms.

In terms of evaluating any changes or negative aspects of the designs, one main issue is probably the level of difficulty of animating, further more sophisticated animations could have been developed if the both skills and more time was there. Also the target age range, children and teens are very different from age 13 to 18, therefore it was difficult to communicate to everyone, however the design has been created to be relatable and generalised to the broad audience.

Ultimately the designs meet the brief and more in terms of putting teenagers minds at rest and help them to relate to and express their worries and problems in a protected, welcoming environment.

Brief 4 - Childline - YCN Submission Boards

Below shows the competition submission boards for YCN.

Brief 4 - Childline - Mock Ups

Below shows the designs mocked up in different contexts where they may be seen, such as on Childline's mobile phone app or on their main website. The images below show how the designs are versatile and can easily be scaled up or down, individual shapes can be taken out and used in various ways across the range of platforms.

Brief 4 - Childline - Final Designs

Below shows the final designs of both the repeat patterns and gifs. Each theme has it’s own personality and shows the specific themes and emotions in their individual nuances and design decisions.

Brief 4 - Child line - Feedback

• The designs work well and relate to the audience, it is successful in communicating difficult subjects in more engaging and abstract ways.
• Feedback said to make the patterns more spaced out, as at the moment they are too busy and this is too much on the eyes, and may effect how the children feel.
• The gifs and colours are also successful. 

Brief 4 - Childline - Gifs

Below shows a selection of the developed gifs, for both key themes Looking at simple, but effective movements and keeping to the same illustrations and colour schemes applied across both the illustrations and animations. Feedback suggested that the designs are successful in communicating difficult subjects in more engaging and abstract ways.

The next steps were to select the most successful gifs and develop them around each of the themes to create a cohesive set of illustrations and animations, using the same shapes, layout and colours, bringing the illustrations to life. 

Brief 4 - Childline - Development

Below shows development, focusing on the theme of difficult feelings, experimenting with the layout, proportion and colours of the shapes and designs. Feedback suggested that the designs were successful as how the shapes are displayed and the close proximity of them, the closer together they are the more effective the designs are in meeting the brief, without being too triggering to young people, it has been done and achieved in a much more abstract way. 

Looking at the different colour ways and schemes, the most successful design used the darker colours as a background colour which makes the shapes stand out a lot more. The colours used also relate to the theme well, without being too harsh, for example staying away from the use of black works well. 

Below show the other design development for the key theme of hope and positivity. Feedback suggested that using a smaller number of colours worked best as it wasn't too busy, also using more gender neutral colours, staying away from the pink as well, this made the design look too immature. 

Feedback also suggested not using darker colours as it didn’t represent the feelings of hope in a good light, the lighter colours were more effective. However staying away from white as it kind of made the illustrations get lost, the designs look a lot better and more suited on a coloured background. 

It was also stated in feedback that the designs looked too busy to be representing hope and positivity and calm, positive space. Therefore it was decided to create more white space between the shapes, creating a better breathing, calm space for young people, so that the shapes weren't suffocating each other and the space around them. 

Brief 4 - Childline - Development

These designs stemmed from the idea and research into the likes of pathetic fallacy and how weather can affect moods and feelings, which is relatable to anyone and everyone as it also affects everyone in some shape or form. Therefore the idea focuses on using bad or scary weather such as lightning, clouds and rain but created in a more abstract way, using sharp edges and corners to further iterate the idea. Obviously this idea is for the key theme of representing dark thoughts and difficult experiences. 

Trying out different textures and colours, and layouts brought me to the idea of making it look more illustrative to fit in with the existing styles of the Childline website and also to make it more suitable and relatable to the target audience. 

Therefore the idea was developed to create repeat patterns and beginning to use and experiment with different colours, again taken from the childline website, ensuring that the illustrations and animations wouldn't be miles away from their existing brand. 

Experimentations with the other key theme of showing hope and positivity, looking at weather which is associated with these things usually, such as clouds, sun and rainbows and illustrating these in a similar style to above, creating repeat patters which could be broken u or added to depending on where they are going to be used across the Childline platform. 

Different colours and shadows, textured have been experimented with, before beginning to experiment with gifs and animations. 

Experimenting with different colours taken from the Childline brand seeing which work well together and how it can be made gender neutral and target the broad audience. The most successful colours are those the emit positivity such as yellow, orange. Also the more gender neutral colours work successfully as this allows the illustrations and gifs to be relatable to everyone. 

Below shows initial experimentations with gifs, looking at small simple movements, experimenting with different colours and directions of movements. Each appropriate to each of the key themes. Feedback suggested to use a wider range of colours rather than monochrome to make the designs and animations stand out more. 

Next steps were to continue to experiment and develop with colour choices and layouts, as well as different gifs and animations, using different movements and shapes.