YCN: Hostelworld – Campaign Targeting Students: Design Development

Gathering Imagery 

Photography as noted on the brand guidelines

The photography Hostelworld provides seems really staged and un-relatable at times. A lot of the photography has a strong Instagram edit feel, with high saturation and blurred edges.

Knowing a fair amount of students who have been on gap years, or done year abroad, or just have done a lot of travelling in their summers, and often stay in Hostelworld accommodation, the design reached out for imagery. 

This was an easy way to gather a broad spectrum of photographs that encompass exactly what Hostelworld are trying to communicate, in the realest way, and with the most practical examples. The idea was, if a student could relate to the advertisement, they would be less intimidated and thus more inclined to listen. 

The design acknowledged that the photography should have a level of professionalism, so selected the images that do fit Hostelworld's brand guidelines for the inclusion of photography, whilst also practice the concept of communicating to the everyday student.  

Key considerations:

• Vibrant
• Happy 
• Social
• Food, adventure, sightseeing

Poster Development

The post development played around with layout and colour. Once the hierarchy of type was established and the colour use kept consistent, the variations started to look like a series, despite their differing qualities of picture formats. 
The design decided that there was no need to have a strict consistent format as the brand guidelines establish a clear visual communication that remains consistent throughout, and this meant the series could cover the variety of intended messages and imagery.

Process of composition piling:

Final compositions

A wide variety of posters were created to speak to a wide audience. The text covers the areas of attraction explored in the research investigation and the imagery covers the 'words we are' provided by Hostelworld:

• Unashamed
• Spontaneous 

• Energy
• Social
• Positive
• Authentic
• Open-minded 

• Amazing
• Active
• Colourful
• Youthful
• Welcome 

As such, the poster series is playful, random and engaging. The language is not authoritative and speaks with a conversational and friendly nature. The text is youthful; touching on internet memes which in turn create discussion around the content, building momentum around a Hostelworld dialogue on campus. The imagery is colourful, engaging, somewhat euphoric. For students who are fed up of the Uni library and canteen, having this sort of voice on campus will definitely encourage them to travel – especially if it’s been proven to be beneficial to their studies (which the posters note). The subjects in the images are young and relatable as they are actual students themselves. Some were even taken on a phone. This sort of un-staged, not too over the top imagery resonates with students, and allows them to actually picture themselves there. This is an alternative approach to the forced 'around the camp fire with an acoustic guitar' style of most hostel imagery, which over the years has become stigmatised and stereotyped with the 'gap year' aesthetic, which definitely puts a sector of students off. Instead, the imagery chosen still fits into the Hostelworld visual but is more real and relatable to the everyday student – many who have never gone away on their own yet. This shows them they can and normalises it rather than glitz and glamourising it with models and Instagram filters.  

The final posters play with the Hostelworld branding, incorporating their slogan into the messages, which in turn builds brand association. The design recognised the existing 'meet the world' subheading to successfully encompass their goals. In this way it sought to enhance the communication and reception of this tag, rather than try and replace it. This idea fuelled the development of the scratchcard series.  

Scratch card development 

Following the development of the posters, the scratch cards took the landscape imagery and experimented with bold type over. At first, the design considered creating a series, but concluded to keep it simple and effective, selecting a broad message and inclusive imagery.

Front

This photograph particularly stood out as encompassing 'adventure over souvenirs' thus tying together Hostelworld's desired tone of voice. It's super in the moment, youthful, expressive and really representative of holiday. The imagery differs to the poster series yet maintains the same visual tone and thus design reasoning, making it a great selection for the scratchcard cover. The design went on to develop wording, placement and symbolism.

Back

An active QR code was developed, designed in-line with the colour outputs from Hostelworld's brand guidelines to insure the visual literacy for the series remained consistent. The code was then exported onto the back template of the scratchcard, resembling the stamp of a postcard. This feature will direct students to the app, where once they have a reason to download it, and an account, the likelihood of them staying engaged or consider booking a future trip is higher and encourages brand loyalty.

The remaining space on the back was utilised to promote the key conclusions drawn from both the primary and secondary research. The accompanying text played around with weights and colouring to see how best to express the intended message. 

Refinement:

After the design had concluded the cover composition, it had to consider how the scratchcard information was going to be applied. The 'over' symbolism from a fraction was selected instead of the lettering as an easy basis for the scratch revealing. This provided a clean linear section that made the application of the scratch off paint easier to apply, as well as a final composition that is simply to navigate.

The design played around with expression and punctuation, as well as the area and colouring of the scratch-able element. The orange and white strip resembled a sporty and competitive feel that went well with the scratchcards competitive and playful purpose. 

App development

The app design is in keeping with the Hostelworld branding guidelines and furthers the use of illustrative characters to maintain an inviting tone of voice.

Using the template and screenshots of the app, the rewards page was designed over to ensure the layout, type and colours went with the existing app. This would make it more applicable in practice. 

the icons were designed to communicate as a universal language that would ease the user experience 

Characters

Final stills:

Communicating how the app would work:

Peer Critique 2:

• Adventurous - early on in life due to language 
• Playful type 
• Would guess 18-25 target audience
• Wider tag line
• Get rid of souvenirs??
• Can't tell its scratch - maybe make that silver

Scratchcards after peer critique
Following a peer critique, the 'over' strip was made thicker and silver acrylic was used to clearly communicate the scratch-able area. Despite some feedback, the design decided to keep the adventures over souvenirs as with the thicker strip, and in context with the poster series and all of Hostelworld's online resources, the design felt this message would ultimately be received. Even if not clear at first, the communication and visual literacy is still there for an engaging and energetic design output. 

Front before scratched

Winner

Loser

Back