26/09/2024-28/10/2023 (Week 1-Week 6)
Lizzie Tanaka (0362065)
Brand Corporate Identity | BDCM | Taylor's University
Task 2: Logo
LECTURE
Week 4 -
BCI_4_Brand Ideals
Brand Ideals
- Brand: One's gut feeling that companies can't control but they can
influence by showing what differentiates them.
- Ideal: One's conception of what is perfect.
Brand ideals refer to the brand's inspirational reason for being. It
discusses why the brand exists and the impact it seeks to make in society.
It's a higher purpose, beyond than just selling products/services. The most
successful company is not the one with the most brains but the one with the
most brains acting towards one goal; shared intention. An example of this
being Google's initial motto which describes what differentiates them from
the rest: Don't Be Evil. The motto was silently removed in
2018.
Brand Values
Results in real engagement and a more powerful relationship with the target
audience. Brand values have to be fixed and steady as it changes the bond
with consumers. The best brand values are able to reflect on the consumers'
ideology and still embrace the business' passion.
An example is Nike's 'Just Do It' campaign in 1988 and a similar campaign
in 2016 called 'Find Your Greatness,' and Apple's 'Think Different' campaign
in 1997 by Steve Jobs.
Ideals are crucial for responsible creative process:
1. Vision
A compelling vision by an effective, passionate leader is the foundation of
the best brands because it requires courage. Bigger ideas are sustained by
those who can imagine. To hear the brand's vision face to face is important
in the identity process as it is the storytelling to build their culture and
brands.
2. Meaning
The best brands stands for something; a big idea, a strategic position or a
defined set of value. It's rarely ever immediate as it is a slow and
evolving process. It is a designer's job to translate the meaning in visual
forms and expressions. All brand identity system should have a framework
that stands for the meaning of the brand.
3. Authenticity
Authenticity is impossible without the organization or the company having
clarity about its market, positioning, value proposition and competitive
differences. It's self knowledge and making decisions that align with that
knowledge. Companies who know and understand themselves and what they stand
for will create brands that are genuine and sustainable. Customers often
identify with personal and memorable aspects and what they see as
authentic.
4. Differentiation
Brands always compete with each other in the market so it's not enough to
be just different. Brands must demonstrate this difference and make it easy
for their audience to understand it. A really good brand leaves a big gap if
they ever left the market.
5. Sustainability
Refers to longevity of business in an environment that is filled with
constant flux and unpredictable future trends. Brands are messengers of
trust. Consumers will be reassured by a brand's identity system that are
recognizable and familiar. it is achieved through a commitment to the equity
of a central idea and the capacity to trigger change.
6. Coherence
A brand's experience must be familiar and have the desired effect. It is
the quality that ensures all the pieces hold together in a way that is ideal
to the consumers. It's the baseline in building trust, loyalty and delight
in the customers. Brand identity system is visually and structurally unified
on cohesive brand elements, utilizing specially designed colors, typefaces,
and formats.
7. Flexibility
An effective brand identity puts a company in a position for change and
growth with supporting evolving strategy. Innovation requires brands o be
flexible. The brand identity plays its role by keeping the brand
recognizable with a balance of control and creativity.
8. Commitment
This ensures everyone that is involved in the business or organization have the same motivation and dedication. Discipline is needed when building, protecting and enhancing the brand to ensure its integrity and relevance.
9. Value
Measurable results need to be created to promote and sustain the brand. Value is the biggest goal of most organizations and businesses. Brand is an intangible asset and the brand identity aims to sustain this value.
Brands with higher purpose reasons are successful due to 2 reasons:
1. They equip the employees with their core imagination and vision to address changing reality.
2. Deep relationships with customers who seek connection, community, and participation.
The challenge is to authentically create a brand and sustain them. Brand ideals are there to connect, unite, and inspire.
Week 5 - On task 3
INSTRUCTIONS
For task 2, we are asked to create a logo and its guideline. The submissions
are as below:
A. Research and Analysis: Collect 2 logos everyday for 2 weeks and analyse
each logo.
B. Logo and Guideline: Produce a logo for your own brand. Guideline
submission:
1) Logo in BW, reverse & colour
2) Logo space rationalization & clearspace
3) Logo with strapline
4) Logo with rationale (brand ideals)
5) Logo minimum size
6) Brand primary & secondary colours
7) Logo/brand typeface(s)
8) Patterns derived from logo
9) Logo animation (GIF)
A. Research and Analysis
I collected 2 logos everyday for two weeks, took pictures of them and compiled
the analysis in this PPT.
Fig 1.1 Task 2A Logo Analysis
B. Logo
B.1. Research and Brand Ideation
To start off the project, we were asked to ideate 3 career options if we
weren't designers. Alongside the career, we have to think about the brand name
and think of these questions:
- Your career/business
- What service(s) / product(s) are you providing?
- How do you differentiate yourself from others? (uniqueness of
career)
- Who will be interested with your product(s) or service(s)?
- Name & Rationale
I thought about three ideas, which I took notes here:
Fig 2.1 Brand ideas (Week 1)
After the feedback session, I decided to go with the third idea:
Stationery/Lifestyle Brand.
In the following week, we are asked to explore about our business with
brainstorming and mindmap. We made 2 mindmap:
a. Business Mind Map
In the business mind map, I thought about the main concept of the brand such
as the colors, the design style, the products, the deliverables, and more. I
also thought about the different brand names I came up with and the brand
voice I want the audience to perceive. Aside from that, I also brainstormed
about the people that would be behind the brand and the marketing that I
would pursue.
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Fig 2.2 Business Mind Map (Week 2)
b. Brand Name Mind Map
In the brand name mind map, we were asked to come up with as many
words/keywords that reflects our brand name. On my first attempt, my mind
map brought up a lot of the business aspects instead of describing what the
name reflects.
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Fig 2.3 First attempt on brand name mind map (W2)
Because of this, Ms. Lilian asked me to re-do this mind map. Below is the
correct mind map. This mind map included the things I was reminded of when I
thought about the word 'volume' and 'nineteen.'
Fig 2.4 Final brand name mind map
B.2 Sketches
With the mind map done, we were also tasked to produce 2 sheets of A4 worth
of logo sketches where we are able to explore different styles. My idea
sketches are compiled into a PDF below. I produced 7 main sketches (marked
in the red numbers) and the feedback session resulted in 3 chosen logos to
explore further.
Logo #2: This is an improved version of the first 'Volume 19' blocky
style logo (marked with a red circle). Ms Lilian liked the roundedness of
the first 'Volume 19' as she thinks that logo #2 is too blocky. I decided to
explore this more.
Logo #6: This has a good sense of direction and reflects the brand
better. Can try to bring back the loops.
Fig 2.5 Logo idea sketches (Week 3)
Within the week, I explored on the two ideas, sketching different versions.
By this time, the direction was leaning more on logo #6 so I ended up
exploring more of it.
Fig 2.6 Logo exploration sketch (W4)
On week 4, I focused more on exploring the handwritten logo by trying
different letter versions such as looped letters and regular letters. Most
of the sketch looked the same more or less. Ms Lilian told me to move to
explore the logo digitally and see which one works best.
B.3 Logo Digital Exploration
For the handwritten logo, I chose to do it using the pencil tool as it gives
me more freedom to achieve the desired look. The ones in bold strokes are
the ones that I'm more keen in. I selected the uppercase letters and the
lowercase letters (stacked in three) as my two final logo choices. I tried
to include a mascot because I felt like it was too plain with the lowercase
logos as well. With the blocky logo, I wasn't as interested in it so I
didn't explore much, only modifying the last one to be less blocky and more
flowy and imperfect.
Fig 2.7 Digital exploration
Personally I thought that the lowercase one was a bit too plain, thus why I
ended up trying the mascot. The loops in the uppercase logo exuded more fun
into the logo. At the end, I chose the uppercase handwritten logo. With the
logo chosen, I explored on possible color palettes of the brand.
I wanted the color to be fun, bold, contrasting, yet not too experimental. I
sourced a few color inspirations from Pinterest and modified each color to
better fit the contrast.
Fig 2.8 Color palette exploration
Fig 2.9 Chosen color palette
B.4 Logo Guideline
After finalizing my logo, I moved to making the logo guideline and the GIF for
the final submission. Here is my progress. I was confused on what to fill for
my logo space rationalization as my logo is positioned randomly and none of
the letters are the exact same. This was the progress that I had submitted for
feedback.
Fig 2.10 Progress (W6)
Clearspace: For my logo clearspace, I utilized my 'u' on all 4
sides.
Typeface: I selected the 'Tarif' type family to be used in the heading,
subheading, and body text, only interchanging between the font styles to
ensure consistency. I thought that the serif would complement the more playful
typography used in the logo.
Pattern: My two ideas were to use the full brand name and the looped
'e.' I used the pattern tool in Illustrator. There were a few failed attempts
on the pattern.
Fig 2.11 Attempt #1 pattern
Fig 2.12 Attempt #2 on the looped 'E' pattern
GIF
For my GIF, I wanted to incorporate my brand pattern into it. I used Adobe
Illustrator to arrange each frame and imported them to Photoshop. In total,
there were 30 frames made (10fps).
Fig 2.13 Process on AI frames
Fig 2.14 Attempt #1 GIF
The gif would start by the looping 'e' filling up the frame and gradually
spreading away out from the frame. The logo would then zoom in from the center
while the colors in each letters are also different. When it's on the right
size, the colors will have changed into a solid orange.
Fig 2.15 Process on attempt #1
Feedback Week 6
Ms. Lilian explained to me about the space rationalization so I worked on it
first. I utilized the gap on the sides of 'volume' for the first measurements.
The letters was also constructed in similar measurements of heights, but
positioned not exactly on top of each baseline. Some letters go above the cap
line and some go below the baseline. I also added that the 'o' and 'u' were
the same in x-height measurements. Lastly, I added in lines to visualize the
gap between each letters. None are exactly the same since the logo required me
to adjust each letter accordingly to look visually equal.
Fig 2.16 Space rationalization (W6)
She also commented that my GIF felt disconnected, from the looped 'e' to the
final logo, it feels like two separate gifs combined together and it lacked
the connection. After the feedback, I also saw that the GIF felt random
altogether. Ms. Lilian suggested I try to make the colors interchange for the
looped 'e' at the end so it has more connection.
Fig 2.17 Changes in the last 5 frames
Fig 2.18 Photoshop process
I ended up liking the way it all looks. I added bits of rotations at the end
to complement the playfulness of the GIF.
Aside from the GIF, she also pointed out my mistake of using the same brand
color as my logo color. She told me that it's different and if I had used the
same colors on both then it would feel repetitive later on. I did thought of
the main colors of the logo which was the cream and the orange so I decided to
fix it. In the new guideline, the logo color is cream and orange, also as the
primary colors. The green and the brown are the secondary colors.
Fig 2.19 Color palette adjustment
Fig 2.20 Final PDF guideline process
Final Result
Fig 3.1 Final Logo Guideline PDF
Fig 3.2 Final Logo GIF
FEEDBACKS
Week 1
Third career choice is interesting and has a lot of things to be designed, so go with the third one.
Don’t be limited to design what you like/prefer, be flexible to explore
Week 2
Re-do the brand name mind map. It should be more about the name rather than the concept of the business.
Week 3
Good that there is a lot of exploration and focused on wordmark/letterings.
Logo #1 and #7 (improved): Good but it feels a bit too rigid for the brand voice of fun and playful.
Logo #2: Feels too blocky and sharp, more like a bookstore, can try to make the O and U softer instead of in blocks. Can try to make it more like the less refined version with the O and U softer and the 19 in connected letters.
Logo #3: Still feels a little rigid while going back to the whole connected loops.
Logo #4, #5, #6: Good direction of logo, feels playful and more aligned to the brand image, more relaxed and cheeky. Can try to bring back the connected letters.
Week 4
Both ideas could work but just explore a lot on the digital exploration and see which one is best-fitting for the brand.
Week 5
The uppercase one with the loop ‘E’ looks the best, compared to the lowercase one (stacked in three). It shows more of what the brand is selling
The block letters also look good and more interesting but it doesn’t fit the brand’s image.
Week 6
The GIF feels disconnected, between the use of patterns and the logo coming into the frame. Maybe try to play colours on the looped ‘E’ on the logo frames.
Brand colours shouldn’t be the same with the logo colours to avoid repetitive colours.
In the logo space rationalization, you can include the baseline, the gap of each letter and more.
REFLECTIONS:
Experience:
This task was a balance of fun and challenging. I was glad that we were given a chance to explore our own 'career' for the logo and I learned to broaden my ideas and imagination through the ideation, the sketches and the exploration. I think sketching as many ideas as possible was my main challenge because I had a specific idea in mind and pushing myself to think outside of this set idea took some time. This past few weeks were quite enjoyable and seeing my logo come together was satisfying.
Observations:
I observed that from a lot of my sketches, many seem to look like it would work well when digitalized but as I began to explore digitization, I figured that some, if not most logos, looked weird and wonky. A lot of tweaks were needed and it just didn't feel the same as the sketch. There were a lot of trials to get the right logo.
Findings:
I find that although we were given creative freedom on the logo, there is still a set of rules and guidelines to pay attention to in order for our logo to be better functioning.
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