Case Study by Robert Smith RGD, Founder / Creative Director, Greenmelon Inc. and Irv Osterer, Department Head - Fine Arts and Technology, Merivale High School
Greenmelon Inc. participated as industry partner for a unique project with Communication and Design students at Merivale High School, who were assigned the task of creating new ways to raise the profiles of specific products for DeSerres Art Stores.
About the Project
Students in the Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM) program at Merivale High School are required to complete a Sector Partnered Contextualized Experience. This project involved working with a sector partner to explore new ways to promote retail products for DeSerres Art Stores, providing insight into client needs and execution parameters.
Students were assigned products and given the opportunity to work with DeSerres on the many aspects of in-store promotion and product placement. The project required students to apply design thinking techniques at each stage of the process from analysis and concept development to the final execution of an in-store POP promotion.
Students presented final concepts with descriptions of their creative process to Thomas Baribault, Manager of DeSerres St. Laurent in Ottawa and Christina Georgas, Visual Presentation Director from DeSerres' head office in Montreal.
Result
“These finished projects are terrific. If you look at each you will see that everything is carefully thought out and planned, emphasizing the user experience. This is not art for art's sake, as is the norm for most secondary school art programs. This is responding to a client need much as one would go to an advertising agency and pay for their expertise and service.” Irv Osterer, SHSM Coordinator, Merivale High School
“This is the best thing I have set my eyes on this early in the morning! I was greatly impressed by the process and the research! Brilliant!”
- Thomas Baribault, Manager of DeSerres St. Laurent
