Grounding
Beverage, Mental Wellness
Purpose
Advertising Starbucks as a space for the millennials and gen Z to relax and re-ground themselves after a stressful day.
A part of the MOME 130 Motion Media Technique 1
Responsibilities
Designer Researched, conceptualized, and maintain the cohesiveness of the piece. Creating assets for the design after finalizing the design frames.
Storyboard Artist Created the storyboard, design frames, and design board of the piece.
Sound Designer Voiced-over the poem and created the track for the piece.
Animator Synchronized the soundtrack with the visual. Problem solving movements and scene transitions of the design board. Utilized software to animate or recreate the assets according to the need of the piece.
Duration
5 weeks
Tool
Brand Research
Free writing
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe InDesign
Adobe After Effect
Key Takeaways
Market analysis and storytelling: Starbucks' brand value is community focused and it was a journey to find a way to direct the target audience away from the aggressive selling tactic. Connecting the concept back to myself, getting a tall mocha latte at Starbucks after teaching for 6 hours straight was an interesting approach to tackle this brief.
Transitions: After learning some basic techniques from the principle class (see sample), I want to work on the transition of the frames. Instead of fade in and out, I explored match-cuts and masking.
Soundtrack building: Storytelling commercial piece is a challenge as it requires the atmosphere of the setting. Communicating the five senses of coffee from nothing is a challenge, which is why I paid more focus on the sound effect and how it synchronized with the content on the screen than the earlier motion pieces.
Why Grounding with Starbucks?
Senses, connection, and coffee
Starbucks encourages stressed young professionals to use their 5 senses to ground themselves while making and enjoying their coffee.
That is the concept I came up while sipping on a hot mocha latte at Starbucks surrounded by a couple group of people working on their laptop, scrolling on their phone, talking to their friends, or just trying to control their dogs not to bark. It is not the most peaceful area, but everyone seems to be at peace and enjoy their time there.
The Boards
Empathizing with the audience
Approaching this project, I want to stay away from the corporate illustration, which triggers the superficial atmosphere, but I realize the
Animatic Board
Developing the design
Synchronizing the soundtrack with the scenes with basic movements allowed me to see errors and areas of improvement, which led me to developed a better board.
Thinking of the rushed morning, I first thought of the time when everything goes wrong, and dropping the car keys in the drain seems to be the worst thing that could happen. Thanks to the critiques that made me realize that this is a great opportunity to create a visual metaphor for Star (the main character) as she reaches her breaking point.
It's All About The Details
Finalizing the design and housekeeping
After finalizing the design, I continued to work closely with the content, professor, colleagues, and random people around my work area. It allowed me to identify details that can be improved on (and surprisingly is another a good approach to make friends at art school.)
