STB x NTU Live Brief 2024

At STB, we love giving our time and experience to help the next generation of designers. Every year we work with universities on various live briefs, portfolio reviews and offer placements too!

This year was no exception. We challenged second-year graphic design students at Nottingham Trent University to create a new pet food brand that challenged the market and offered something a little different. They had to think of everything from brand name and tone of voice to packaging and how to launch it.

We kicked things off with a live briefing session at the University. Students had free rein to choose whatever animal or pet they saw fit, but had to consider things such as the type of food, quantity, dietary requirements, packaging format, on shelf presence vs. delivery service and price point.

We visited again halfway through the project for a more informal crit session. We chatted through their initial thoughts and research and shared advice for developing their projects further.

Finally, the students came into the studio to present their final projects to our designers. The projects were all so different and both us – and the students – had fun on this brief.

We think the following 2 designs deserve a special shout-out here…

Emily Naulls – ‘Alula’ Exotic Bird Feed
@naullsgraphics

Emily saw a spot in the market for high-end bird food. The brand name ‘Alula’ comes from part of a birds wing and made a great base for this flamboyant brand. A well-researched project with lots of thought going into her packaging and marketing too. Great work!

Ciara Gough – ‘Clive’ Chameleon Food
@ciaragoughdesign

Ciara created a quirky brand of chameleon food. She had great understanding of her target market and this informed her decisions across the project from character design to the ‘unpackaging experience’. A fun brand with a sense of humour too!