Existing Gift-Shop Games
By looking at the sort of games already existing in Museum gift shops and the educational sector, the design can take a more appropriate direction. The sorts of materials already on offer, and the graphic design that talks to a relevant audience, can be seen when compared investigating this sector of design.
Often with gift shops, especially for museums, the products are very interactive and playful. They often have quirky characteristics and the range of product is vast. They are also quite pricey products, due to the nature of Museum gift shops, with the audience being tourists/ families etc. who generally (in this country) do not have to pay for entry. Furthermore, with school education budgets, this gives appropriate leeway for the game to include the necessary materials to make it what it seeks to be without worrying about it ending up too high a cost. The design could really have a place in the market if it considers its competition and its buyer.
The Natural History Museum
The tone of voice is very loud, playful and childish for the games, with varying type choices, compact imagery and collaging that is bright and colourful. They also have more grid conscious designed products for different purposes. This variety shows the range of audience well.
The Science Museum
The science museum has the largest variety of games on offer of all the museums due to its authoritative nature. The games range in tone of voice and target audience from more playful to more education, showing distinctly in their choice of branding from colourful, loud design choices again, to darker imagery and packaging choices. This seems to be reflective of the content, and thus, when relating to space the black branding choices unanimously connote the space sector to the audience.
The Design Museum
With a more highbrow audience, the design gift shop choices are more high end / expensive. The design thus noted considerations of textures, pattern, type choices, that connote a clean aesthetic, as this is what the end product seeks to achieve, but within a somewhat populist market. Seeing the incoherent array of products that sell at high prices, gives the design further authority in fitting into the market well.
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The materials they sell are concurrent with the experimental ones the project seeks to include  |
Similar visual language the card design pattern and texture the game seeks to fit into:
Findings:
- Lots of compartments / features / pieces is normal
- Box design - sleeves / lids / mostly cuboid
- Colourful to more monochromatic design decisions depending on the tone of voice and target audience. The games for kids at home are louder, whereas more scientific and ornamental products have a lighter tone.
The Design Museum has a really fantastic selection of products, and is somewhere this design could really have a voice with its focus on material as a form of education. Their logotype and typeface identity is really clear, catching and sleek. As such, this is a great typeface to use for the design, due to its neutrality, playfulness and youth-fullness. The type really speaks to a modern audience in an extremely bold and apparent way, it does not categorise the audience to a certain age, making it perfect for the game.
As the game seeks to be somewhat universal, and with the growing number of refugees around Europe, the age of children's literacy is changing. Accordingly, the mental age and physical age of children's learning abilities is more interchangeable in our society, and the design does not want to seem childish, alienating some students. It wants to be educational, speaking to both the parent / teacher and the child / student. The language used will be simple, and so the typeface should be less 'childish' (such as that of Top Trunks or traditional kids games) and more educational. Thus 'SchulbuchNord' is a perfect selection to put this concept into practice and make the distinction.
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