This document provides reasoning for slogans and font choices for potential Irn-Bru packaging designs. It discusses using pun-based slogans to appeal to teenagers. It considers several font styles and colors, including Impact, Tall Dark and Handsome, and Cooper Black, settling on Impact and Tall Dark and Handsome for boldness. Four can packaging designs are proposed: 1) uses Impact font around the can, 2) features one line of text on a blue can, 3) uses rounded text similar to Dr Pepper, 4) reverses Irn-Bru colors with blue text on orange background. The designs aim to stand out and attract teenage customers through bold colors and fonts.

1. Copy

2. Ideas for my Copy - Slogans
I keep my Irn-Bru under Loch and
Key
Irn-Bru, it’s a Ness-essity
Why have an English brew? When
you can have a Scottish Bru?
£1 for an Irn-Bru, that’s a Dundee-l
Be Bru-tally honest
Pipe down… it’s only Irn- Bru
I’ve always been a fan of outsider
art (referring to a child's painting of
a person drinking Irn-Bru, the child
is English, relating to the term
‘outsider’).
They can take our freedom, but
they can never take our Irn Bru…
(Braveheart reference)

3. Reasoning for using my Copy
I utilised a pun-based theme for my copy, as it is related to the witty content
that has been featured by ‘Irn-Bru’ in existing products. It is clear that this
theme is effective, as it has made an impact in the past due to the ‘off-colour’
nature of the content, however, it has been published in a light-hearted manner
and is not meant to offend. Although, the comical text has been established in
order to initiate a reaction from the public, both positive and negative, but
either way, the company will become a talking point and the awareness of ‘IrnBru’ will rise. I wanted to keep the pun theme for my copy, but I decided not to
create any text that may be deemed or classed as ‘offensive’, as I would not
want to provoke any form of negative feedback. I think that by using this
specific linguistic device, my media products would be popular with the primary
target audience, who will respond to an informal form of language that has
humour embedded within it. A pun will catch the attention of the
audience, which is why I have used several, so that my content will appeal to
the teenage market in which I am trying to pander to.

4. Fonts

5. ‘Impact’ Font:
I chose this particular font because I thought that it would be
suitable for the ‘Irn-Bru’ can packaging in which I will create, as it is
bold and significantly eye-catching, therefore, it is sure to hold the
attention of the primary target audience of this beverage which are
teenagers, who will respond greatly to this blatant use of colour and
bold lettering, as opposed to text that is small and not composed
utilising a standard san-serif font, but a font that is slim and does not
draw in the attention of the consumer. I wanted to incorporate the
traditional orange and blue colour scheme into this font as I wanted
the consumer to be able to identify that this specific can packaging
was that of ‘Irn-Bru’, as they are iconic of the energy drink giant and
are therefore appropriate to use. The brightness and vibrancy posed
by the deep orange and blue colour scheme means that it will
become more visually appealing to the audience as it stands out
which means that the attention of the viewer will be held when they
are viewing the final outlook of the can packaging.

6. ‘Tall Dark and Handsome’ Font:
I wanted to source a font from ‘Dafont’ under the sans-serif
category as I believe that this particular typeface is bold and
easy to comprehend, therefore , the teenage audience would be
able to relate to it as it has been deliberately displayed as bold
and outlined so that it is clear. Also, much like the first font idea,
I have used the signature orange and blue colour scheme that
has been is used ‘Irn-Bru’ on a frequent basis, however,
sometimes the intensity of the colours have been altered which
is the reason why on this specific font style, I have used a
weaker colour scheme, with the orange and blue colour being
not as vibrant, which may prove effective, as the scheme utilised
upon the first font style could be deemed as too ‘loud’ and
vibrant, which detract from the overall look of the package. I
want to make the font size fairly large for this particular media
product, as I had discovered from my previous research that
existing can packaging from other energy drinks such as
Lucozade, included a piece of text on a large scale, which is
appropriate as it will attract the attention of the primary
consumer. I think that using large font is a prime example of a
clever marketing technique, as the company have purposely
initiated this piece of text in order to hold the attention of the
consumer so that they will feel obliged to read it and possibly
even purchase it.

7. ‘Forte’ Font:
This particular font panders to a female audience, as they are
stereotypical colours that are related to this specific group in
society and therefore, it is likely to pander to them. However, I
do not approve of the font that I have chosen on this section as
it is not comprehendible and almost looks as though it is a
completely different logo phrase. I first chose this font as it
differed from the other two previous fonts and I wanted to
experiment with several forms of typeface. I found my lettering
on my first slide to be the most effective in appealing to the
traditional audience (teenagers), as it was easy to read, as
opposed to this piece of text which also looks rather informal. If
the audience does not approve of the font, then the media
product will initially fail, which is one of the reasons why I will
not be utilising this typeface. The font is also very bold and
chunky, which distorts the copy that is trying to be presented to
the consumer, which makes the text irrelevant.

8. ‘Cooper Black’ Font:
This font style is effective in drawing in the attention
of the primary consumer (teenagers) as it is a solid
typeface that is appropriate to use as it is likely to
appeal to the audience, who will not be fazed by a
font that is not bold. They will want to view
something that has definition to it, which has been
provided by the black outline on the text. It is also
apparent that the bright orange and stark blue
colour are both effective as they make the font stand
out so that the viewer will notice it. Also, if this is
going to be presented on an advertising poster, it
has to make a sudden impact, otherwise the point of
the media product will be diminished.

9. ‘Kozuka Gothic Pro M’ Font:
‘Irn-Bru have used black and white photography in
their advertising material beforehand, therefore, I
decided that I would try out this technique on my
typeface so that it could compliment the visual
aspect posed by the existing print-based products
that were initiated by ‘Irn-Bru’. I chose this font style
to compliment the monochrome colour scheme as I
thought that it looked professional and could
possibly be used upon the material in which I will
create during this project. The lettering is thin, but it
is still legible, which makes it appropriate for the
target audience, as well as the secondary market,
being individuals who are not of an adolescent age.
It has to be clear and concise otherwise it will not
work as part of an advertisement.

10. Product
Development

11. 1st Design
I chose to keep my first can packaging idea fairly
simplistic, as I wanted it to catch the attention of
the audience due to the fact that bold, outlined
text has been utilised for emphasis. I would have
this as a central banner around the can, as I
believe it would look effective as this type of
layout has not been featured before on any
existing canned drinks. The final image shows
the flatplan of the first can packaging idea in
which I have created. I made the product out of
several shapes as well as text, which adds to the
minimalistic nature of the design and therefore, it
panders to the target audience (teenagers) who
will respond to small amounts of text so that they
do not become bored of such written content. It
is clear that by also utilising bright, solid
colours, the audience will respond to them as
they are traditional colours of the energy drink
giant, ‘Irn-Bru’, so they will immediately associate
these colours with the specific drink as well as
being drawn to them, as they are blatant and
highly noticeable due to the outlining of the
text, which highlights its importance. The
typeface which I have used is entitled
‘Impact’, which is ironic, as I want it to make a big
impact upon the primary consumer, who are the
main market for this specific drink and if their
needs are not catered to, the company would not
be able to compete with their energy drink rivals
on the market, including ‘Monster’.

12. 2nd Design
For my second potential can design, I decided to incorporate
one piece of text only, with a bright background, as I thought
that it would appear unique and would therefore interest the
primary target audience of ‘Irn-Bru’, as it differs from a regular
can design, as it has been stripped back of any extravagance
and uses only the title of the drink in conjunction with the can
having a blue coating on, as opposed to my first design, where
the regular silver-toned, standard can colour has been shown
greatly. I think that this would work, as it would stand out
from the existing drinks that are displayed on a stand in a
typical supermarket, as the can itself has a blue, chrome
packaging that is not found upon an average piece of
packaging. I have used again the typical colours of ‘Irn-Bru’, as
the primary audience will be able to relate to this traditional,
iconic colour scheme that is unique to the company. In
comparison to my first design, the same font has been
utilised, as I believe that it is effective in catching the
attention of the audience as it is bold and outlined, which
highlights the font, therefore, making it look more protrude. It
is notable that this specific font is very similar to that of the
original ‘Irn-Bru’ typeface, which is one of the reasons why I
chose it, as the primary audience will be able to relate this
font to that of the original, where the differences are
extremely slim.

13. 3rd Design
The packaging of a ‘Dr
Pepper’ can, which
uses a rounded design
with the logo featured
directly on top of it.
This is my third can packaging design idea, which significantly differs to that of my previous two designs, as the
colour scheme is slightly different, because the iconic blue and orange combination for ‘Irn-Bru’ has been toned
down from the bright nature of the packaging of my two existing products. Arguably, this makes it less eye-catching
to the audience, but I think it works well as it looks professional, as the font ‘Tall, Dark and Handsome’ is similar to
the original font, much like the font which I had used in my previous designs, however, this typeface appears more
soft and looks rather sophisticated, which contrasts with the harshness posed by both designs one and two that I
had created. I chose to place the text with a circular, rounded background, as this technique has been used before
with previous soft drink can packaging such as ‘Dr Pepper’, as well as other existing products, therefore, the
audience will be able to identify with this style and will possibly choose it because they are familiar with this specific
layout form.

14. 4th Design
This design is different from the styles that are featured upon my previous can
packaging products as the colour of the font has been swapped to blue, with the
background being orange. With this, I have utilised the iconic ‘Irn-Bru’ colour
scheme, but by simply changing the colour over, it has made the packaging appear
noticeably different. Also, the orange background compliments the blue typeface
highly as it makes the text stand out and almost look three-dimensional, which is a
factor that will draw in attention from the primary consumer being teenagers, who
are likely to respond to a blatant piece of marketing upon an energy drink that is
specifically targeted towards them. The outlined text is the first piece that is most
recognisable on this design. I decided to use a general band around the can to
place the text on, as it highlights the font whilst also adding a sense of definition to
the packaging itself, making it more appealing to the viewer. I used capital lettering
for this design, much like my second and third product idea, as I believe that it
emphasises the sheer importance of the product and also, ‘Irn-Bru’ use capital
lettering too, which makes it relevant to the traditional theme posed by the energy
drink company. However, I think that I could have included a slogan for this design
as I had used it in my first idea and it looked rather effective, as once the audience
is drawn into the design, they will view the text, and if a catchy slogan is included,
it will encourage them to acknowledge every aspect of the packaging as it can add
a humorous touch to the design, which makes it more appealing to the primary
consumer. ‘Irn-Bru’ has used comedy on their existing media pieces in order to gain
a response from their primary and secondary audience, so that the awareness of
the company increases and so does their sales. It is a clever, but controversial
marketing technique that transforms the product into an item that is deemed
mainstream.