Produce and post one piece of creative design relevant to my interests which I am proud of to a relevant social media account, thereby improving my online presence and adding to my portfolio.
One thing that really struck me when putting together both my manifesto for the PPP3 module and my portfolio in preparation for the portfolio review with Andy was not only the lack of work I was produce of and wanted to put in my portfolio but also the lack of branding pieces which is something I would ideally like to focus on when I graduate from university.
One of the main pieces of feedback I received from visiting Basecamp in Liverpool was that clients like creatives that are able to work to quick turnaround briefs and this is something which would be expected of me in industry. Therefore I have decided that for one of the brief I will undertake for Extended Practice in conjunction with the PPP3 module and my portfolio I will design and produce a selection of design work which I can post to various social media outlets such as Behance, Instagram etc. to build up my portfolio and online presence. Something I wanted to achieve during the course of third year.
My experiences during the first semester, particularly on the COP3 module made me realise I more focused towards the branding and identity field rather than advertising and promotion as I originally thought when I started first year.
Therefore I will replace my original brief to design for a 'Tourism Ad Campaign' with 'Branding Portfolio'.
The outcome of the Branding portfolio will be a selection of branding outcomes in response to a variety of different briefs (different audiences, tone of voices, requirements etc.) which I can present in my final portfolio.
I began by unifying my online presence with my visual identity in order to create a strong presence for my practice.
I used 99 Designs I website I had come across when working on the Responsive Module during second year to gather branding briefs I was interested in and could work on.
#1 Bearman
Brief:
A top notch designer and illustrator needed to design a logo for an individual (Samuel W. Bearman) at a law firm that handles personal injury, car crashes, accidents, wrongful death and nursing home abuse and neglect.
The design should be masculine, mature, and serious whilst stressing the name 'Bearman' as a focal point, perhaps include an illustration of a bear head?
No Cartoons / clip art / anything cheesy
Concept:
As the identity Samuel W. Bearman required was a for professional industry I wanted to keep my design as sophisticated as possible and therefore have opted for a minimal approach when designing the name style.
In his attachment along with the brief there was an idea of the kind of aesthetic Bearman would prefer for his branding which was a serif typeface.
Therefore I experimented with a range of serif typefaces all in uppercase in order to portray a sense of masculinity before choosing Chanticleer Roman. I choose Chanticleer Roman as the cap height wasn't a great as some of the other typefaces I experimented with and therefore I feel would not be too over bearing on the print collateral it would be applied to.
One of the suggestions Bearman had made in the original brief was to reference his name by perhaps including some sort of bear head illustration? Although I liked the idea of visually representing his name as a means of visual identity I felt a bear head might be too obvious and therefore experiment with incorporating a bear paw of some sort.
However I'm not convinced that a vector illustration really fits in with the sophisticated, professional feel I wanted to convey and in particular with the serif typeface I have chosen to use.
I subtly referenced the 'bear' by choosing a chocolate brown for the name style and adding a small bear paw to the business card design which I think is more in-keeping with the profession than a crass clip art illustration.
I also made a conscious decision to mock the design onto a embossed business card which was printed on a neutral brown stock. The texture of the emboss adds to the high-end aesthetic while the stock references the rawness of nature and works well with the idea of 'bear'.
For my portfolio I mocked the business cards up against a soft pink background which adds a interesting contrast and is more engaging than a white background.
Evaluation:
#2 York's Yummies
Brief: Design a logo for a homestyle sandwich shop called York's Yummies. The logo should be fun, eye-catching and exciting.
Red, yellow and green is a possible colour scheme to include.
Concept:
One thing that struck me from the reading the brief, particularly from the name they had chosen 'York's Yummies' was the 'fun' nature of the brand which something I really wanted to communicate with the design decisions I made when producing my visual outcome.
In order to convey this concept of 'fun' I personally felt it would be more appropriate to take an illustrative, hand-rendered approach to creating imagery for the identity.
I decided to opt for a simple sandwich illustration for the logo for York's Yummies as it pretty much summed up the brand and what they do. When illustrating I took inspiration from the in order to reflect the home-made sandwich they make.
During the initial illustration process I experimented with a variety of of fine liners and stroke weights for the illustration, I personally preferred the thicker stroke and believe it would make more of a impact when applied to the printed collateral.
I quite the like the texture and effect of the coloured pencil however this was something that was hard to re-create when I scanned the illustration onto the mac.
For the final illustration I created a stacked sandwich using three of my sandwich illustrations which I am really pleased with, and believe is quite a unique image which could theoretically work as a stand alone icon in order to represent the brand on various printed collateral.
In order to compliment the hand-rendered aesthetic I had chosen for my illustration I felt a sans-serif font would be more appropriate than a formal serif font.
I did experiment with a couple of hand-rendered typefaces in order to mimic the aesthetic of illustration however when I tried a couple with the illustration I wasn't convinced they were professional enough to represent a business.
From all the placements I tried for the type I think it works best when placed underneath the illustration. and would be most practical when applied to printed collateral as it more compact than the type to the left or right of the illustration and therefore could be larger.
From all the different typefaces I tried with the illustration I was unsure whether to go wight a hand-rendered aesthetic to almost mimic the stroke of the illustration or to go with a more 'clean' typeface which still had a friendly feel yet was perhaps more professional.
I chose to use 'Coco Goose' as I felt the thicker stroke of the typeface would have more impact as 'Lemon Sun' had quite thin stroke and legibility of it could be effected when applied to printed collateral. I also think the rounded form of the character of 'Coco Goose' still has the fun and friendly feel which is the main concept I wanted to reflect in the branding.
I order to effectively present the branding I had created for York's Yummies I decided to mock-up the logo onto a brown paper sandwich bag as not only is this appropriate to the concept but also it would be more engaging to see the logo within a context rather than just on a plain background.
I did try using stock photos I found of 3-D brown paper has however I am not particularly skilled in photoshop and mocking up and the end result wasn't up to the professional standard I wanted for my portfolio and therefore I have mocked it up temporarily on a image of a flat paper bag. One thing I could do to get around this would be to craft my own brown paper bag with the logo on it to photograph which would be simple enough.
I am really pleased with how the mock-ups have turned out. Photographing my outcomes in a context is not something I really done before but I do believe it is a lot more engaging and professional.
Evaluation:
#3 Square One Enterprises
Brief: Design a identity for Square One Enterprises a parent company that start's up businesses while helping other aspiring entrepreneurs start their business.
The logo should be modern, youthful and playful.
Concept:
Similarly to the Bearman brief I worked on previously Square One Enterprises are also a part of the professional industry and it important that this is reflected in the brand identity. As well as incorporating the 'square' which is fairly obvious solution I like the idea of structure in order to reflect how square one enterprises support and help aspiring entrepreneurs.
I began by producing some very rough sketches of square which is an obvious starting point, in order to gain inspiration and develop my ideas further until I came up with a logo I could work with.
Evaluation:
As well as design work I found Instagram to be an effective outlet in which I post about any studio visits, exhibitions etc. I had attended and my design inspirations.
I think Instagram is extremely effective for allowing me to follow the work of any design agencies I am interested in and being able to reach creatives from across the world however although I have received the odd piece of feedback I've not made any solid contacts from Instagram.
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