Ideas in Life presents unique journal concepts, and the company brought Stan Agency a unique challenge for the next journal design. The company wanted to produce a dog training journal for puppies. This would help new pet owners through basic potty training. We eagerly accepted this custom order.
Challenge Components
- Niche market
- Conveying the importance of the training method
- Incorporating best education practices
Industry Research
Our first step was researching the puppy training industry. Not surprisingly, there are several different philosophies available. We looked into how all of these programs worked and what written materials those presented clients. We also looked at the best practices for educating dog owners in general.
Audience Research
Dogs are a cross demographic pet. They do not have a specific audience type that appears before the owner adopts a dog. However, that does not mean that there are not some defining characteristics that helped with our journal design process. We looked at the various learning styles of the gender most likely to do the training to help us design.
Journal Research as a Custom Design Firm
We also examined the journal field in general. This field covers everything from blank pages to motivational tools to high tech organizers. We found a lot of evidence for including significant amounts of white space and images during this search. The team took these basic principles into account as they designed the new journal.
Bonus Challenge
The tricky part of this custom order was creating a journal design that helped people stick to the method Ideas in Life used for puppy potty training. The process is inherently stressful. Many people look for shortcuts. However, taking those shortcuts does not benefit the puppy or the owner long term. Conveying that is of utmost importance.
Design Inspiration
A lot of our design inspiration came from more traditional journals. Those journals are a space to record progress and life events. We wanted the new journal design to provide the same. We also made sure to take design inspiration from current teaching methods. That way the technique would come through clearly.
Element Decisions
Since this journal design involved puppies, it only made sense to include them in the design in multiple places. However, we left the design team to figure out exactly how they wanted to include the dogs. We also instructed the team to look at other Ideas in Life products for elements that fit.
Narrowing Down the Final Options
As always, the design team produced several awesome journal concepts. We began by eliminating those that were not professional enough. Then we examined the Ideas in Life brand guidelines and how this journal design fits with the company’s other products. From there, we checked the ideas for quality in a focus group setting.
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