PROJECT 6: Branding [WEEK 3]

In the final week of this project, I had completed a massive amount of work, yet was still unsure of how to push forward to finalising my logo and completing my brand identity. I realised I had started to overcomplicate things and so thought that simplifying my logo would also simplify the brand and therefore simplify my process of finalising the brand identity.

With a simpler design, I found a lot more oppurtunities to expand my brand identity. The typeface I used for the words "The" and "Yard" were 1 of 5 I played around with in the logo before deciding on what is shown above. The font is from a font family called "Typography Pro" which is a license-free typefont which I found that perfectly fits my brand identity. I then set out my brand identity in a layout to show the guidelines of the branding design.

Due to the simplistic design, I didn't want too many colours or too many typefaces involved in the branding of this bar, so kept it simple. From here, I wanted to start using the finalised logo in a branding application. I started by looking at how and what bars brand with their logo/colour scheme and found examples where the brand identity of a bar is found on pretty much everything you would see in a generic bar.

I started with the menu, which I created from scratch using only the colours I had in the set palette for the brand. I then also produced mockups of a branded pint glass and of how I envisioned the bar to look by altering an image of a skate shop.

Menu mock up

Pint glass mock up

Original stock image of shop front

Branded mock up of my bar

With this project completed, looking back at the entire process, I can say that I am happy with the final piece, and proud that it was successfully completed to the deadline. Although possibly not done to a industry standard, the importance of this project as experience of a branding design set to a brief has helped me take a look at the idea of information graphics and branding identity, which is a part of graphics I have a strong interest in. If I were to do the project again, or if I had more time, I think it could be improved more with more experimentation of type and colour palletes,as well as some further research into branding application and the use of both print and screen design. 

PROJECT 6: Branding [WEEK 2]

On the brief for project, we had a guideline day-to-day schedule. By the time we started week 2, we were recommended to be working on colour schemes. Unfortunately, I was still focussing on developing my logotype. Due to the realisation of falling behind, I tried to incorporate colour into the development of my logotype. 

Coming into week 2, this was what I had so far. Incorporating colour was my next step, but I also wanted to keep reiterating this typography to try and build it into a potentially recognisable logotype. This long-running development helped me to really get a grasp of how in depth the design process of branding has to be due to the importance of projecting an identity that will both be recognisable and also attract.

The colour scheme I was going for, whilst simultaneously developing the logo, was decided by brainstorming colour pallettes that both connected to the word "Moon" and would also make for a good colour scheme for a bar. Along with researching other student union bars, I took colours from images of the moon, and discovered the blueish grey that are shown above. 

I started developing a colour palette for the brand by looking at deciding on colours/shades for the highlights, midtones and shadow tones. I started with black, 50% grey and white, and tried to convert these to the shade of blue I had discovered through taking colour drops from images of the moon. I started experimenting the the colour pallete on Photoshop and tried to create a colour swatch from the hex code and the RGB levels. This close look at producing precise colour swatches is something I had learnt before coming to Ravensbourne and the excercise of producing fitting colour schemes was very useful. The scheme I used is illustrated below.

From here, I started to play around with finalising my logo. Due to the large amount of development and the vast array of initial ideas I had, I had plenty of ideas to embellish. I wanted to look back at the work I had done and be very critical of my own work to try and find something that could work with the least issues. I started getting rid of the ones I just didn't like, and then proceeded to look at whether the designs worked to attract customers and whether or not it was clear enough to understand as a logo.

I ended up looking back to one particular calligraphy piece I did, and felt like it could be incorporated with my current typeface to produce a logo. I felt that I could put the rough splatter of the calligraphy piece with the sleek, almost "sci-fi"esque, appearance of my logotype but looking back on it, I decided the two styles clashed too much. I tried to develop the typeface so it could fit better (shown below) but ended up with something I felt was going over the top and ruining the necessary clarity of the logo. The splatter effect I used made the piece too complex and unclear and made it too complicated a symbol to use as something that should be identifying a brand.

PROJECT 6: Branding [WEEK 1]

Our fifth project seems to be the largest so far and focusses on the topic branding. Over the next three weeks we are to think of an imaginary company/product/place to brand, create a branding identity and produce mockups of the brand in use.

To start with, the easy part was thinking up a company for the project to focus on. I thought of a student union bar for Ravensbourne as it is something the University is lacking in and I thought it could be fun to produce a design of what I believe it could be like. Thinking of names took me many spider diagrams to settle on, and even then I had a list of 20 options. 

With these 20 options, I decided the good way to to start creating a recognisable and relatable brand would be to get some user input into the decision for the name. I surveyed 25 students around the building and asked them to vote for their two favourite names out of the 20 I had. The results came out with 'Moon Yard' being favourite, with 12 votes. I then started researching some already established bars for inspiration for the aesthetic of the brand.

With the name of the brand settled on and some initial ideas in my head, I started playing around with typography to create some rough ideas I could develop for the brand, including some of the pieces I created in the calligraphy workshop the week prior. 

This week's outcome has started off strong, with some secure ideas that I aim to develop and iterate through next week and hopefully start finalising a logo. The process of drawing quick little ideas in ink made sense to me as it meant that I wouldn't be spending too long on each idea I had, getting too focussed on something I might not even use, or settling for something that took too long to be just a rough idea. I was quite pleased with my outcomes, as they offered up quite a few paths for development and more in depth designing. 

I then started designing a typeface that is shown at the bottom of the second page above which I started developing through experimenting with the typography of each letter. This typeface was designed more in detail than the previous rough sketches as I wanted to get an idea of where it could go if it was measured out and drawn accurately.

Moving on with this, I started penning out accurate measurements so that when it came to placing this into Illustrator, if I chose to develop on this idea, I would be able to create it how I originally wanted it to reiterate digitally.

Calligraphy Workshop: Type

The final introductory workshop was on calligraphy and type. By the time of this workshop, we had already started our first big project which is the branding project. Due to this, there was no set outcome to this workshop apart from the experience of experimenting with ink calligraphy. We started with a short tutorial on how to use brush to create lettering and how different strokes could create different effects. We learnt how to produce a typeface with this medium by creating our own with different strokes. Shown below are some of the typefaces I produced in this section of the workshop. I found it quite an interesting experience as it showed how calligraphy could be used to produce a very natural look but also can be used to create precise shapes and lettering when used correctly.

To connect to our branding project we had already started, I thought I should try and create some logo ideas for my brand taking the oppurtunity to use calligraphy to see how that could create an interesting look for my brand. I played around with ink splatter and brush pressure to see what kind of effects calligraphy could add to my brand if I was to use it as a logo. Below are a wide range of quick designs I created using the black ink and a mixture of thick and thin brushes. I quite like the effect this medium makes and I am glad I had the oppurtunity to test this out for my brand as I don't think I would've thought to use calligraphy as a medium when I set down to start designing logos or typography for my branding project.

Stop-frame animation Workshop: COP21 Ident

In one of our last introductory workshops, we were put into a group to work on stop frame animation. The brief instructed us to create a 10 second ident for the upcoming political conference: COP21 that is happening this in two weeks in Paris and focuses on climate change and is aiming to come to a conclusion on how to work together efficiently to slow down and stop the detrimental effect on the climate made by pollution.

The brief was fairly expansive as it didn't have any restrictions other than that the stop frame animation had to be made with paper/card under the stop-frame camera. Other than that, we could be as creative with it as well.

In a group of three, we started brainstorming ideas on how to effectively present this ident in an informative and attractive way. Our main idea seemed to be very consistent with the idea of focusing on water shortages. After some initial sketching, we put our ideas together and came up with the idea of cutting out a tap which slowly started dripping out drip shaped pieces of blue card which slowly grew into an Eiffel Tower shape.

Due to a certain complexity in our idea of the forming of shapes into the shape of the Eiffel Tower, it meant we either had to be extremely patient and also skilled with cutting up card by hand, or we could use a rotary paper cutter to accurately cut out the shape of the Eiffel Tower. I measured each part by hand to try and approximate the amount of "Eiffel Towers" we would need to realistically create the vision of it growing and settled on 25 so we could add a new bit every 2 seconds.

Using these pieces, we learnt how the rule for stop frame animation was that, to create a realistic movement, it is recommended to use a 25 frames a second approach, meaning for every second you should have 25 frames which change the position of the pieces to create the fluidity of movement.

Despite attempting to accurately plan measurements and movement, time got ahead of us and we were forced to rush to the deadline, dropping frames and producing an overall messy concept due to not being able to stick to the 25FPS guideline and adding in far too much extra bits which made the entire video almost 20 seconds long. On the other hand, we successfully made use of the card to express the information we needed to, but had to withdraw on the aesthetic side due to running on too long and rushing the final product. Another thing that needs correcting, if this project was to be redone, is the consistency of the lighting between frames as this adds a rather horrible effect due to the constant change of lighting on screen.

PROJECT 5: Graphics - Book Cover

For the Graphics brief in this project, we were tasked with creating a cover for a book, with the only condition being that it be a book that has been/the author has been awarded a Nobel prize. I chose Death in Venice by Thomas Mann for very simplistic reasons: not only did I like the name but, although I haven't read the actual book, the summary of the story intrigued me on how I could portray the plot through the cover's artwork.

I wanted to play around with themes I hadn't really explored before, including illustration and contrasting styles of illustration to piece together something that was not only aesthetically effective but also expressed the theme of the book without giving anything away. I started with drawing an outline of an image I found of Venice by simply tracing over the image with a paint pen and adding stylistic elements to give it a very sketchy aesthetic. The use of this was meant to connect to the character of the story who was an author and this could connect to his handwriting. I also wanted to express this through the typography I designed but also wanted to have a contrast between the words "Death" and "Venice" to portray the connotations of death as a dark, scary thing and Venice as a place of beauty.

The use of multimedia in this design process proved to be a very simple process but I ended up coming out with many variations due to the difficulty in keeping the design simple and not too busy and I feel I did well to avoid overcrowding the cover. The use of colour was decided right at the end of the design process which is not normally how it goes or how it should go but was due to last minute reiterations to the concept as the silhouetted shapes were initally just meant to be outlines, and the addition of block colour made it difficult to stick to the main colour scheme of simple red, black and white and so this was changed to shades of grey, black and a darker red. Overall this design turned out to the standard I had hoped, but if given more time, I would like to finalise the piece with a bit more finesse.

PROJECT 5: Motion Graphics - BBC2 Idents

Project 4's brief was split into two parts, one being Motion Graphics and the other being Graphics. We were given the choice to complete either one, or both of these tasks. I decided to do both in order to explore the brief in depth. I started with the Motion Graphics task in which I was instructed to create a 6 - 8 frame storyboard, or a 10 second animation for a BBC 2 ident which reflects a specific aspect of the channel output. I chose to focus on art and the theme of production that comes with television. I began drawing thumbnail sketches for the storyboard, however after doing this, I decided to further explore this on Cinema 4D to visualise how it would look on digital format. I used a plugin called Thrausi to achieve the effect that I wanted, which was for the BBC 2 logo to appear to be shattering. Experimenting with this project, I achieved the look I was aiming for with the storyboard and consequently ended up rendering it out from Cinema 4D. In my free time, I played around with it in After effects, creating a final 12 second ident and also creating a second ident in a different style to attempt to explore both my own skillset and exhibit this work in my portfolio's showreel.

I feel like this part of the brief went fairly well, and although it was quite time consuming, it exercised my skills in motion design and prompted me to look into learning new aspects of motion design that I had not witnessed or experienced before.

Illustration Workshop: Fanzines

To build up to the first large project, we were set 3 weeks of workshops. Today we met with Sophie Ward, an illustrator specialising in murals and black pen work, to experiment with how illustration works and how it is a large part of graphic design. The focus today was on the idea of fanzines, something that came up through the punk era as an art trend. The idea of fanzines was that you had images and text, collaged together much like they would be in an official magazine, but done roughly by hand and then photocopied to produce the actual "zine". The benefits to this was the lack of cost for those trying to spread their word at the time about new trends and concerts etc. The style of the fanzine is now a very popular aesthetic a lot of designers and illustrators like to stick to as it produces a rough edged, trendy look.

Starting with the theme, I chose the subject of society's image of beauty and the conventions of physicality. Because of this theme, I knew I wouldn't need much text or writing, so I would focus more on the effect of illustration. Looking at well-known, stereotypical supermodels, I looked at connecting that with the Golden Ratio and the idea of "perfection".

I then attempted to create various artwork through the use of illustration and came up with drawing the above image onto images of models using paint pens. 

This excercise was a good introduction to the wider world of illustration and the trends and themes you can achieve with the rough, imperfect use of pens on paper. I found the use of these pens quite informative on how I can create cartoonesque images that are quite popular in genres of design like pop art. I also discovered in further research of illustration techniques the use of programs such as Adobe Illustrator (which I was introduced to in the Adobe workshop a few weeks ago) and Adobe Shapes that can be seen below.

Author's own, hand drawn in felt tip.

Author's own, digitised in Adobe Capture CC (Adobe Shapes)

PROJECT 3: Climate Change poster

To start the process of this brief, working with the research I had, I played around with a few simple ideas. This process of creating thumbnail sketches got some ideas off the ground to begin with and was an important step to developing a solid idea that could lead to a final product.

Working with coloured pencils helped me create quick little sketches that still had enough detail to easily transfer into a bigger, more final version (whether it was digitised or by hand on a larger scale).

When creating these images, I tried to stick to a theme/message I had decided on through brainstorming the initial drawings which was of diminishing earth resources and the deterioration of the climate. After looking at Milton Glaser's piece titled "It's Not Warming, It's Dying", I was inspired to try and create a simple digital visualisation of the deterioration of the earth and so chose a sketch I had done to develop and digitise.

After losing my USB stick, I lost all files of this design as I created them on a computer at Ravensbourne and so therefore had nothing to bring back and develop and so was left with no choice but to submit the above image as the final due to being too close to the deadline to start again.

Despite this, I felt I achieved what I was aiming to express with this piece but woulda been nice to play around with the effects of the illustration and the overall layout. I feel like the text pieces I put in could've been strengthened or maybe even completely changed. Another option would be to completely leave out the text and keep it with the illustration as this could've gone for a very simple route which would create an ambiguous element which would enable viewers to openly interpret.

PROJECT 3: Climate Change research

Project 3 was based on climate change and the upcoming Conference of Parties (COP21) in Paris this year which aims to come up with a way to drastically slow down and eventually prevent the damage of climate change in the world. After listening to a presentation from a representative of ClimateUK, we were asked to produce a poster expressing the severity of climate change to persuade people to attempt to cut down and help with the fight against environmental damage and the depletion of the earth's resources. 

In preparation for this task, due to it being our first project with an actual client brief, I wanted to look at the significance of graphic design in the world of propaganda and also get more of an idea of the statistics when it comes to climate change to attempt to have a solid base to work off. I started with looking at the ClimateUK website and the NASA website. Both these sights had the same kind of idea when it came to climate change, but both gave different statistics. This made me think of the difference of opinion between the UK and the US when it came to climate change. The fact that both these corporations had the same general theme of climate change being detrimental to the human race, they both seemed to have different scapegoats when it came to blaming a particular element of damage to the environment. 

Because of this I wanted to more focus on the overall damage to the world as a whole and avoid statistics and instead focus on achieving a sense of solidarity from the viewer and try produce a realisation that climate change is real and very dangerous rather than blaming it on a particular part.

Looking at Milton Glaser's 'It's Not Warming, It's Dying.', this showed a very simple piece of graphic design that expressed an image of the damage done with a very blunt visual statement as well as the very blunt title  to project such a strong image through such simple means. Due to the purpose of this work, Glaser's work had to be strong at expressing the message he wanted to in such a vast way, and the simplicity of his piece achieves that as it was easily translated from a standalone image to an overall recognisable brand. The green to black gradient over the circle was created as a badge, shirts and even marbles which got his work out there to express his message.

From this research I learnt how simplicity is key when it comes to branding and graphic design to produce a recognisable image as recognisability is a massive part of expressing a message, which graphic design is often used for.

PROJECT 1: Graphics Pathway Interest Page

After passing my assessment of the Exploratory Stage, I opted to take the Graphics Pathway. To start this stage off, we were given a simple project for the first week to run alongside the Big Draw project in drawing week. The task was to create a square shaped image, 180mm in size, that reflected a particular interest in the world of Graphics that meant something to us. Having a major interest in typography and branding, I wanted to create something that reflected the importance of recognisable branding and how it mixes with typography to create a very large part of graphics.

Using an image of the Moon I had developed into a wallpaper a few months ago (as my surname is Moon) I decided to incorporate that into my design to pose as the branding theme. This mini project exercised the ability to experiment with different ways to express a message/theme through a brief that had many restrictions (such as size, layout, etc.)

Experimenting with written typography and digital touch-ups, I produced the above image in an attempt to express my interest in both typography and branding. The typefont was created in Illustrator after selecting it from an idea I had drawn out by hand in my sketchbook. This showed me the importance of creating quick sketches by hand that can then be digitised to create the final outcome. I also drew out the "love heart" to express the importance of emotion in art and how it can affect people and how graphics can be used to commercialise this effect art has to a globally recognised scale. With the "loveheart" I wanted to keep the hand-drawn aesthetic so just used a scan of the page I drew it on and placed it into the entirely digitally produced piece.

3D DESIGN: Bridge

On the last day of our 3D rotation came the biggest task so far. The idea was to create a bridge out of cardboard, parcel tape and bamboo sticks. To start off, it was wise to research the different kinds of structural bridges.

Suspension bridges

This type of bridge is where the road is suspended below taller structures by cables on suspenders.

Stilted structures

These are structures that are suspended above by pillars or "stilts"

In groups of 8, we then sketched 1 or 2 ideas each inspired by the research we made and got to work.

Despite not being the most aesthetically pleasing bridge out of the class, our piece certainly did it's job as it was able to carry the remote control car used to test quality without fail.