SPARK
This is it, this is my graduation project. The last project to submit at University. 6 months of hard work, blood sweat and tears went into this and if there's any project I want you to see on this entire website, this is one. The trophy. Let's get into it a little bit, what's Spark? Spark is a Sheffield based creative networking event focused around showcasing projects that are currently a work in progress or recently completed. We aim to build and maintain a strong, respectful and passionate community of creative individuals to ask for feedback and to grow as creators.
You see all of this was completely hypothetical, a concept and nothing more. Until my academic tutor, excuse the pun, sparked the idea into making this something so much more than originally thought.
This took time, and by that I mean TIME. You know? From concept to research, to development, to happening (which I'm still in disbelief tbh) then to the final stretch took 6 months in total. S i x m o n t h s. This is by far the longest I've ever worked on a project to the day, May 2020. But my god was it worth it. While it might have been the longest project I've worked on to date, it's easily been the most rewarding too. Okay enough of me blabbering about 6 months of my life, here it is.
Spark :: Early Logo Development / Exploration
A good handful of motion graphics work was made for this project, for all different kinds of announcements. Sold out, x days left etc. Alongside writing 200-300 word blogs posts on LinkedIn, it really got the word out there to people I know and even people that were out of my circles. I'll be honest here too, I'm not a writer, I never was a writer and I have no intention of ever becoming a full-time writer. But after writing these progress updates week after week, for the first time in a good while - I actually enjoyed writing them. Strange right?
Unfortunately, motion graphics don't seem to be compatible with Behance at this time, to see these head on over to nevercrowned.com/spark OR sparksheffield for a more detailed case study on these.
Speaking of LinkedIn, Sparks first post seemed to go semi-viral within the South Yorkshire region (1000+ views). From there, while the views might have lowered, at a certain point they started to get really consistent high numbers respectively. What's even better than that is views aside, people were engaging with the posts. Tagging friends, asking questions, the whole lot. It really did seem like people were looking forward to Spark and were getting as involved as they could online.
To keep track of all the development stages and rules that I was slowly but surely setting for Spark, the brand guide was next on the list. This brand guide is a little bit of a mixed bag if I'm being honest. It's half a brand guide, half a design development document along with essentially being a consistently updated document to show to tutors and sponsors (still can't really believe that one) to keep them updated and informed on the progress so far.
Spark :: Brand Guide
Countless social media posts, banners and everything in between were made throughout the entire development process. Some of these were used and others weren't. None the less it made sure that there was a constant backup of marketing/advertising material in case I couldn't find the time to create something new. Even though that didn't happen, the precaution was there.
Spark :: Social Media / Marketing Material Posts / Mockups
Doing a complete 180 from social media posts, prints. Don't get me wrong I love social media and the power that comes with it. Getting over 2000+ views in total on an idea that I had and posted about a couple of times? Mad. Even though my work is very digital-focused, nothing beats a good old fashion print. Stickers? Cards? Posters? Anything. Something you can hold with the identity on it, to me, it's a real show of time and effort. More on stickers, this turns into somewhat of a free marketing strategy with putting them on phones, laptops and whatnot. With all that in mind, there were also some misc prints too - feedback forms and letters that were each hand-delivered to companies. That was a really cool one to do. Can't forget about the personalised thank you pack I made and handed to Fat Panda, Spark's sponsors, either, thanks again.
Spark :: Prints
Alright, enough of my homemade episode of "how it's made". Let's get to the photos of the event. Photos were taken by Chelsea Massey and edited by yours truly. Spark collaboration in a nutshell.
Spark :: Event Day Photos (Taken by Chelsea Massey / CMasseyDesign)
That's all of it. There's a good handful of academic documents too. My entire dissertation was based on Spark. If you want to see/read it I'm more than happy to share the PDF with you, but let's be honest most people don't want to read a 4000+ word essay since they can just scroll through here.
Thanks for reading/scrolling through all of this. If you take one thing away from this entire concept and everything involved with it, go Spark some great connections with some great people.
Seeya.
More over at nevercrowned.com/spark OR sparksheffield.co.uk
