Category: Brands

The brief required us to make a minimum of 4 outcomes for the project. There are 5 different formats of outcomes that we could work with; digital, print, physical, spatial and events. I planned to create something for each of these formats. I didn’t want to just make a series of random outcomes, I wanted to keep them connected with a couple of central themes and consistent with the branding and visual identity I made. I researched lots of companies and social campaigns who tackle a similar topics to get inspiration and ideas. Here are some notes I made during my research and planning of the outcomes.

I chose to split my outcomes into 2 main sections. The ‘Explorers Packs’ which would be a more merchandise based one. I chose the name ‘Explorers Pack’ because it aligns with the slogan ‘Little Explorers’. The other will be a scavenger hunt which would be an event that the campaign would run. I chose this because it’s an event that children can do to really engage with nature and immerse themselves in their surrounding. Also it’s more enjoyable for children than a walk or hike as there’s more of a direct goal, find a series of things. These will allow me to cover all 5 types of outcomes and diversify the engagement that people can have with my campaign. I also thought about a few ideas that aren’t part of either of those outcomes but would supplement them. Below are all the outcomes that I made for the project divided into sections titled; mockup merchandise, hand made merchandise, posters and social media posts.

Mockup Merchandise: Although I didn’t actually make them they’re a series of physical outcomes. Out of everything these were the first outcomes I made as they’re fairly quick to make. It was a good way to experiment with different ideas about how to combine the branding identity and visual assets onto merchandise. To make these mockups I used a range of different digital software such as Adobe Illustrator and Illustrator Beta, Adobe Photoshop and Procreate. The more complex ones I did with Illustrator Betas mock up feature but for the more flat and simple ones I used Photoshop and Procreate. All the items could be used in an Explorer Pack as there’s a range of fun and practical items that children could use.

Tote bags: Some sort of bag is almost always included in nature kits to hold the rest of the items from the kit and any other things they may need. Tote bags are popular at the moment as a simple way to brand an item. They can carry a lot of stuff but also fold up small so would be ideal for a child to bring with them when going for a walk or doing any activity in nature. I made several designs using Illustrator and Photoshop.

Mini drawstring bags: To try show the folds of the bag I used Illustrator Betas mock up tool which allows your design to wrap around an object. These bags could serve multiple purposes in the Explorers Pack. 1 could be to store any items they collect when they’re out in nature such as interesting leaves and rock. Another could be to carry items like bird seas and nuts that they could put out for the wildlife. Also they could store the other items from this campaigns such as the badges they collect for completing different activities.

Notebooks: Notebooks are a commonality between most companies that make sets of merchandise for children. I made several different designs on Procreate, I think the top one is the most successful. The characters really bring the design to life and turn what is otherwise just a boring notebook into something more engaging to a child. Also having the pages branded with one of the textures I made is a small touch but makes the product feel more unique.

Other accessories:

Stickers and badges: I made these mockups as fun little extras that could be in the Explorers Pack. I also thought they could be used as an incentive for engagement, for example for completing challenge they could get a sticker or badge and this could build up into a collection. It’s important when making merchandise to have colourful and engaging products so I think stickers and badges of the characters and logo would be popular.

Cap: Using Illustrator Beta I added the full coloured logo onto a plain cap to create this mockup. It’s a simple design but is an essential for children to have when being outside in the sun so would make a good addition to the Explorers Pack.

Cameras: I added the submark and logo onto digital cameras using Photoshop to brand them. I think this would be a good and unique item to have in an Explorers Pack as it would encourage children to pay closer attention to their surroundings as well as potentially sparking passion for photography. It’s more hands than simply using a phone camera and would help reduce the need to be on their phones when out in nature.

Hand made merchandise: These are more physical outcomes. The products are relevant to both the Explorer Packs and scavenger hunt. After creating the series of mockups I started actually making some merchandise for the campaign. To create these products I bought some blank items and customised them in the 2D craft area at the University. I first did an introduction into the facility to get an ideas as to what sort merchandise I could realistically make with the equipment they have. The tool I used a lot was the Cricut maker and its accompanying software. This allows you to upload a design and the machine will precisely cut it out. The material I used for the design was HTV (heat transfer vinyl). I used a mixture of plain colours and metallic colours. The design would be cut by the Cricut machine then I would iron it onto the item. Once I made the items I photographed them outside using a Conon camera and a big roll of white paper for the background. I wanted to take nice product shots to make the campaign look professional and so I could later make a mockup instagram post promoting it.

Explorer Packs: When making the merchandise I was constantly thinking about my target audience and the idea of the Explorers Pack to make sure everything remained relevant and on theme. I used a lot of the ideas from the mockups but had to make some alterations due to the resources and facilities I had available to me. Below are 2 different Explorer Pack options. Option one is more focused on the animal characters and contains a tote bag, 3 stickers, a mini drawstring bag, a hanging sign and a notebook. Option 2 is more focused on the branding with more of the logos and contains a tote bag, 2 drawstring bags, a notebook and a hanging sign.

Scavenger hunt items: The event outcome I planned was a scavenger hunt. I was thinking about ways to make this more unique and specific to my campaign. The idea I came up with was that each child who takes part would get a checklist and a stamp of the submark logo. Each time they found something on the checklist they would stamp it. The things on the checklist would be different plants such as specific type of trees and flowers as well as commonly seen animals and insects. To make it brand specific there would also be branded hanging signs and cut outs of the animal characters that they’d have to find. When they complete the scavenger hunt and have stamped all of their checklist they would be given a prize and it would be one of the wooden discs with the logo or an animal character on it. These could be collected by completing multiple activities and stored in one of the drawstring bags from the Explorers Packs.

Individual items:

Tote bags (Explorers Pack): I made several different designs: 2 are with on the characters, 1 is with the submark logo and the other is with one of the textures I made. I like all the designs as they all work for the target audience and align with the branding identity but I’d say my favourite is the top one as it is the most fun and dynamic. I think using the silhouette style designs help draw attention to the shapes of the animals and give it a clean look that a parent and child could use.

Hanging signs (Explorers Pack): I didn’t make mockups for these but thought that could be a nice additional item for the Explorer Packs which children could decorate their rooms with. I did 1 with the logo and 1 with Freddy the fox.

Mini drawstring bags (Explorers Pack): I closely followed the mockup designs for these bags. The only change I had to make was to do the fox in a single colour rather than in full colour. This was due to limitations I had with the materials and machinery available. However I actually think with the size of the bags it works better in just this metallic orange, any more detail would unnecessary and too small.

Notebooks (Explorers Pack): To make these 2 notebook designs I combined ideas from all my mockups. 1 simply has the logo is a bold and bright green. I think this one works as a piece of simple branding but I don’t think it is unique and visually interesting enough. The other has a more complex design with a vine texture, Benny the Badger and the submark logo. I prefer this one for my target audience as it’s more busy and combines more elements of the campaigns visual identity. To get the character in full colour I printed it on sticker paper and used the Cricut maker to cut around it.

Stickers (Explorers Pack): For these I did the same process as making the badger design for the notebook. The only difference is I used glossy paper to give it a nicer, more premium feeling. These are exactly like one of the sets of mockups I made and would be a nice item for children to have and use to customise something like a sketchbook.

Hanging signs (scavenger hunt): Up to this point I had only really worked on canvas and other woven material and paper so I wanted to experiment with putting the HTV on other materials. I didn’t make a mockup for these designs because they were just a successful experiment. To my surprise they took really well to the wood so I was able to creates these signs for the scavenger hunt with the submark logo and different campaign slogans. The reason I wanted them to be signs in the scavenger hunt is that it gives the children a more diverse range of things to look for hopefully making it more engaging.

Wooden discs (scavenger hunt): After the success of putting the HTV on the signs I wanted to experiment further. The signs are made of a very processed wood do was still relatively smooth. These wooden discs have more grain and texture. The HTV did stick well but took longer to hold. I’m really happy with these and think they’d make really nice prizes for completing the scavenger hunt so could act as good incentives for engagement with the activities.

Stamp (scavenger hunt): This stamp was made by uploading the design and a machine then presses the design onto the rubber like material creating the stamp. The stamp would be used to mark off what things on the checklist they have found on the scavenger hunt. I wanted to make a stamp as it’s just more fun than using a pen to tick it off. This style of stamp holds a lot of ink for a long time so would rarely need to have more ink put on it, making it more convenient and user friendly. I chose the paw print leaf rather than the full logo as it’s a more bold shape with less detail so even if they didn’t stamp it well or it smudged you’d still be able to tell what it is.

Posters: These are a series of printed outcomes. I didn’t physically print these as poster but I did mockups of them in context. These poster were a good way to focus more on combining the branding identity and campaigns visual identity. To make these posters I used 2 digital softwares, Adobe Photoshop and Procreate. With the merchandise I was more limited to what I could in regard to colour and composition by the materials that were available to me. But with the posters there was more creative freedom in that aspect. I made 2 different types of posters, character posters and promotional posters.

Character posters: I wanted to make a set of 3 posters, one of each character. To make them feel like a set I wanted to have the same visual style across all 3. The posters gave me the opportunity to develop on the aesthetic I’d been working on with the textures overlayed on the curvy shapes with the brand colours. The first image with all 3 in a row was my first attempt. I liked the composition, the placement on the logos, the characters, the curved shapes and the textures I chose. However it was the colours that I was unsatisfied with. Firstly I made the green and blue background colours too light so didn’t stick to the brand colour palette. I also think I overcomplicated the colours especially for the target audience. The characters are already colourful so they don’t need so made didn’t colours around them. Also I think the colours in the curved shapes are too dark and don’t align with the visual identity I wanted.

I fixed the issues I mentioned and came up with the 3 posters below. I think keeping the backgrounds to just 1 colour and white is much more visually appealing and makes the poster look more cohesive. The colours are now all ones that are in the branded colour palette so align better with the rest of the outcomes.

Poster mockups: I used Adobe Photoshop to create the mockups of the posters in frames. I think they work well as a set and successfully convey to visual identity and tone that I want the campaign to have. Along with the hanging signs I think these will make nice decorations for a child’s room.

Scavenger hunt posters: The second kind of poster that I made were promotional posters for the scavenger hunt. These posters needed to serve a different purpose while still keeping a consistent visual language. The character ones are solely decorative, these ones are made to not only be visually engaging but also promote an event so needed more context than just a logo and character.

I used the photos I took of the character cut outs as they’re something that would be on the checklist for the scavenger hunt. Combined this with the curved shapes, textures and brand colours to match the other posters. But this time I added text to give information on the event. I used 2 typefaces from the selection of brand typefaces, Monsterific BB and Chantal Light. I kept the details to a minimum by just including the name of the event, a question to engage viewers and where to get more information from. I thought too much information would be off putting to a child so this way they will get interested and the parents could go to the instagram mentioned on the poster to find out more. I made 2 versions of the using the same template, only changing the character and colour.

Poster mockups: To apply these to their context I created mockups using Adobe Phototshop. This allowed me to adjust the opacity and blend mode to allow the creases and shadows to be seen, making it more realistic. Unlike the character posters these were made to be viewed by the general public so would be placed in a range of located, such as near parks, schools and shopping centres. By applying them to this context the poster also become a spatial outcome.

Social media posts: These are a series of digital outcomes. The social media platform that I chose to work with was Instagram as that’s my personal favourite and I think it’s one of the best for starting companies to have. I think much of what I created is transferable to other platforms. The posts allowed me to further explore the campaigns visual identity and further explore the ideas from the posters. Where they sit in terms of aesthetic and purpose is somewhere in between the character posters and the promotional posters. To make these posts I used 2 digital softwares, Adobe Photoshop and Procreate. I used Procreate for much of the design then took it into Photoshop to work with the text. This is because the typefaces I chose are all Adobe fonts.

General posts: These are a set of general posts for the Instagram account. I used some of the stock images I downloaded to create these. I tried to cover and represent all aspects of the campaign so there’s one of a child in nature, one of natural scenery, one of an animal and one of some outdoor crafts. I used a range of brand colour, textures, and slogans to show a range of the campaigns visual identity. They are all clearly look like a set but are unique enough that they don’t get too repetitive and boring. I would use the image is draw in the viewers attention and then more details would be in the caption on the post. This would help make the online presence appeal to both parents and children.

Scavenger hunt posts: The next 4 posts are all specific to promoting the scavenger hunt. The photos are all of things that would be on the checklist to find, the hanging sign and the animal cut outs. By bringing these items into their context they also become spatial outcomes. I went for a slightly different visual style to help differentiate these from the general posts. They still have the same design elements just with some variation. Because the photos already have lots of colour, I decided to completely remove any colour from the branding details and keep them all white, creating a nice bold contrast. I used Monsterific BB for all of the text used on the posts.

Instagram mockups: The last outcome I created was these Instagram mockups. To achieve this I took screenshots of some existing Instagram account and used Adobe Photoshop to make the necessary changes. These included adding in my own photos, account name, profile picture and captions. This is something I had worked on earlier in the module on the ‘Fake You’ task so was fairly confident in editing profiles. I made 3 mockups, 2 prompting the scavenger hunt and 1 promoting the Explorers Packs. I tried using the captions of the posts to share the essential details that would need to be know when hosting an event. This allowed me to work on the tone of language to make it appropriate to my audience. I made sure to keep it fun and light heart to align with the campaigns identity.

The next step was to take the visual assets I had created and start developing them into ideas that I can use to create outcomes for the campaign. The 3 visual style I have chosen are natural textures, digital illustrations and photography. I was very happy which each style individually but the challenge is to combine the 3 contrasting visual aesthetic to create a cohesive brand identity. I experimented with the raw assets to see how best to use them for the campaign.

I took the textures that I made from scanning and printing and played with the colours to make them match the tone and aesthetic of the campaign. I used the brand colour palette which I saved on Procreate and all the relevant Adobe softwares. I used different blend modes to achieve different distributions of colour. This process is far more time effective than doing physical prints in each colour. I certainly wanted less black as I wanted white to be the most common neural tone as it helps lighten the image and give it a more welcoming feeling. Below are some experiments I did using the leaf textures, wood textures, lino prints and branded colour palette.

In order to make the digital illustration of my characters more versatile I removed the textures I put on them and vectorised them on Adobe Illustrator. I used the image trace tool, this is the same process I used for the logo. They can now be scaled really big and really small. I still like the look of the textured versions so I may still use them for some outcomes. Below are the vectorised version of each character:

In one of the sessions I had I was given feedback on my designs and told that for some outcomes, in particular merchandise, the characters may be better with less colour. This is because I already have lots of strong colours in the brand palette so to actually make the characters stand out I need to remove the colour. I experimented with different ways to do this. First I tried just desaturating the colours but I didn’t like this as they seemed too lifeless and I thought the details didn’t translate well.

I preferred this more graphic silhouette style. It’s a much more minimalistic look and I think it’s nice as you still get the shape so can recognise the character and what animal it is. I’m going to try experiment with this style on some merchandise.

I wanted to start combining the photographs I took of the cut outs of the characters with the textures. I saved white PNG versions of some of the textures and played with different compositions. I chose white as it’s clean and simple and was the most eye catching colour against the busy photos. I really like the unique combination of the visual styles. In these compositions I can see potential for social media posts and possibly posters.

I experimented with this way of combining them on some of the stock images but found that in some cases the textures didn’t stand out enough no matter what colour I used. The solution I came up with for this problem was to use these nice curved shapes with colours from the branded palette and put the textures over the top. This style is something I really wanted to continue with and use as a key part of my brands visual language especially for digital and printed outcomes. The curves are versatile and can be used to compliment the subject of the photos.

I experimented with the each style of visual asset and ways to combine them to create a cohesive visual language. I am happy with the ideas and the next step is the experiment with combining the visual styles with the other branding elements (typefaces and logo). Also I will begin making the outcomes for the campaign.

I worked on creating the branding identity for my campaign about getting children more involved and engaged with nature. This is a diagram that illustrates the process of completing a project. It can be applied to this ‘campaign for change’ brief. It’s still the early stages of the project so I’m still working at the initial research and ideation parts.

Before making any branding decisions it’s important to research and figure out exactly what topic you want to tackle. The main thing I needed to figure out more specifically was who I wanted my target audience to be. My campaign will be a type of social club, inspired by the Scouts and Brownies, to engage children with the natural world. I looked into the different stages of child development to get a better understand of what age group I wanted to target. I decided to aim my campaign at children aged 5-10. This is not a strict rule as anyone would be welcome but more of a guideline to help me create the branding and campaign. 5-10 covers the end of early childhood to the middle of middle childhood. Some activities and product may be more target to the younger or older end of this bracket but everything will be suitable for all.

This is my research into children in this age bracket. With this information I can properly target my branding and campaign style. The key reasons for choosing this age group are that by 5 most children have a basic level of reading and can understand and carry out activities. And by 10 then can complete more complex activities and are much more social. Extending the age range any more would make branding decisions much more tricky, less cohesive and less targeted.

Branding/Campaign identity:

With the topic and target audience decided it was time to create the campaigns identity which is comprised of a name, slogans, colour palette and selection of typefaces. Before making decisions about any of these I established what I wanted the values of my campaign to be. So I created a list of 10 words that sum up my campaigns values: adventurous, crafty, educational, engaging, fun, friendly, kind-hearted, social, warm and welcoming.

Name/Slogan:

For the name it has to appeal to children as they’re the target audience but also the parents. I went through different versions of the name before I settled on ‘Nature’s Adventurers’. My initial idea was to call the campaign ‘growing with nature’ but with some research I found there was already a company with this name so didn’t want to potentially infringe on any copyright laws. So I then thought of ‘Nature’s Little Adventurers’ but found this too wordy so settled on ‘Nature’s Adventurers’. Also I thought that including ‘little’ in the name may come across as patronising to the older children in my target audience so didn’t want to exclude anyone. The name is short and simple but gets across the key themes of the campaign.

3 word slogans such as Nike’s ‘just do it’, are particularly catchy and popular so I wanted to create my own for the official slogan of the campaign. I tried different combinations of words but choose ‘play, learn, explore’ as they’re all short and simple words that children in my target audience would know and understand. Also the 3 words sum up and encapsulate what I want to achieve with the campaign. I came up with other taglines that can be used across flyers and social media. I really liked ‘growing with nature’ so I wanted to keep it as a possible taglines seen as I couldn’t use it for the name. For activities and products targeted at the younger part of the target audience I could refer to them as ‘Little Explorers’, this name could be used on merchandise such as badges and stickers. A tagline that I thought would be more targeted at the parents was ‘replace screen time with green time’. It has a nice rhyme to it and explorers the other part of the campaign which is to reduce screen time for children by getting them out in nature.

Colour Palette:

This is the final colour palette I chose for the branding. I did lots of research into how to tailor a colour palette to children. I will keep the palette consists across all platforms and products as children respond well to consistency as they’re good at recognising patterns. The key pieces of advice where that children are generally drawn to bright colours but make them not too bright as they could come across at tacky to the parents and don’t emphasise neutral colours. I went through lots of variations before I chose this palette. For the neutrals I wanted black and white as they go well in every palette. I would primarily use white more for backgrounds as it lightens up the page and black for the writing as it’s easily readable, making it child friendly. Green and blue as they’re commonly associated with nature so would translate this message well to children. I chose a couple different shades of each. These are cool colours so I wanted to contrast these with some warmer colours, these being orange, yellow and pink. These are eye catching and pair well with the cooler shades.

I took this palette and added it into Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. I chose colours that aren’t too bright so they’re easy on the eyes and are compatible in both CMYK and RGB colour modes. This means I can use the same palette across print and digital media.

I put the palette into a software that checks the contrast between colours. A score of 4.5 and above is the target for a good pairing. These are all the colour pairing with above a 4.5 contrast. The colour palette gives me a wide range of compatible colours to use.

These are of the compatible pairings that are user friendly:

The cooler, more natural earthy tones are the primary colour palette. This image shows the colours, compatible pairings and contrasts within the primary palette:

The primary palette will be complimented with accents of the warmer secondary palette. This image shows the colours, compatible pairings and contrasts within the secondary palette:

Typefaces:

A good set of typefaces for a brand needs at least a typeface for bodies of text, a typefaces for heading and a more decorative typeface. Deciding on good typefaces was important as it needs to be appealing to both parents and children as well as legible to accommodate for children with different levels of reading ability. I looked in the Adobe font stock as I wanted all the fonts I chose to be easily available across Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign as there are the software I plan to create most of my products. For the paragraphs I chose Arial Rounded MT bold regular. This is a simple typeface with nice rounded edges that give it a friendly appeal. It also maintains a professional look that is aimed at the parents because these larger bodies of text with be information for them. For the shorter bodies of text I’ll use a combination of Blockhead OT Unplugged and Chantal Light. They’re more dynamic and fun with nice simple letter forms that are written in the style that I child would learn to write in. The hand written style is perfect for notes and captions. For headings I’ll use Impact Regular and Monsterific BB. Impact is a rigid bold typeface that is perfect for more professional heading. Monstreific is more decorative and fun so is perfect for title and products I want the children to engage with.

Blackcurrant and Prater Sans Pro are 2 more Adobe fonts I added to my collection of typefaces to use. I had a meeting about my project and got feedback on the typography choices. I was told I needed more heading fonts that reflect the fun and playful theme of my campaign. Impact is too rigid and compact for some headings so I chose a couple other options.

Logo:

The style of logo I wanted was a combination logo that has an image and the brand name. This is ideal for starting businesses and campaigns as it gets people familiar with the image and the name, improving recognition and in the future 1 element could be removed and leave other. I also wanted it to be en emblem style and resemble a badge so having an image in the middle with the name curved around it. This will then make it perfect for merchandising. Below are a couple sketches I did of ideas with annotations for the reason behind the design choices.

I then combined the designs into this logo which I made of Adobe Illustrator mostly just using the shape tools, pen tool and pathfinder tool. I made it in black and white because it’s important that the logo works in grey scale before introducing colour as colour is such a powerful tool for messaging. I used Impact for the typeface as it’s bold and legible even from a distance.

These versions are made with white and just dark green or black. They won’t be the official coloured logo but it’s good to have a couple variants of the logo with minimal colour to use on certain formats and merchandise.

I took the paw print leaf design out of it logo and will use this as the most reduced emblem of the campaign. This is in the same way that brands like Puma have their logo with the symbol and brand name but often they only use the symbol. I really like the design that I created and think it will work well across all formats. This is the submark logo.

Here are 4 full coloured versions made using colours from the colour palette I made, this means they will work on screen and in print.

These are my favourite 2 variations of the coloured logo, they have the same layout of colour just with different shades of green. I am struggling to decide which one to use so I’ll ask a range of people and try test the logo on my target audience to get feedback. The green and blue work well together and create a natural and welcoming look. I think the small yellow flowers add a warmth to the logo. I’m happy with the image in the centre and I was able to combine an animal paw print and a leaf to make a single image which translate the themes of the campaign.

After thinking about it and asking a range of people, I chose the logo on the right to be the main logo of the campaign. The feedback I got was that the lighter green outer circle is more welcoming and fun and made the paw print leaf stand out more. I then took the logo and vectorised it in Adobe Illustrator using the image trace tool so it’s scalable. This means I can change its size and the image won’t lose quality and become pixelated. This is ideal for a logo because you can put it on a big billboard or a small badge and it will have the exact same quality.

An overview of the campaigns visual identity:

For this project we need to identify a human-related problem and make an intervention in the form of a campaign for change through a combination of research and your own perspective The campaign must have an identity comprising of:

• A logo
• A colour palette 
• A typeface for display and a typeface for continuous reading matter
• A slogan

These should unite and compliment each other to create a consistent look, tone and feel that is appropriate to the campaign subject and approach. It is important to use language that is appropriate to the subject and audience. Once the identity has been created, we must then apply them (brand) to a series of outcomes that come together to provide an array of opportunities for your audience to encounter them, and respond or help in some form.

Formats: 

• Digital – social media, websites, videos, animations
• Print – posters, billboards, brochures, leaflets, flyers
• Physical (Merchandising) – packaging, clothing, bags, accessories
• Spatial – pop-ups, interiors, exteriors, public spaces, environments
• Events – performances, interventions, displays

The Process:

1. Research, find and choose a human related problem
2. Consider your audience – who should know about your problem?
3. Create an identity and branding for a campaign, made up of a series of outcomes
4. Make an intervention by positioning the campaign where it will be seen and experienced by your target audience (be sure to consider multiple formats and ways to communicate with your audience).
5. Provide a way for your audience to respond to your campaign

Below is my initial plan for the project. I aim to tackle the issues of conserving the environment and getting people more engaged with nature. I will target the campaign at children so will need to make all of the branding appropriate for children as well as appealing to parents. I did some research into the current market to see what other brands are doing and brainstormed some branding ideas.

I have been learning and practicing using Adobe Illustrator. This is a powerful software that’s ideal for making vector illustrations and is often used by graphic designers to create logos so is ideal to use for this module. I was introduced to the software last year in Digital Arts 1 but didn’t take it much further so I’ve had to relearn it this year. I started by watching introductory videos to get me familiar with the layout and the different basic tools including shape tools, pen tool and pathway tool.

I created these 2 images using the basic shape tools. These tools are straight forward to use and manipulate at a basic level but become more difficult when you need to combine them to create more complex shapes and paths.

For these 2 I used a combination of shape tools, the pen tool and the pathfinder options. The pen tool is a difficult tool to manipulate accurately so I’m gonna need to keep working on it but I’m happy with the progress I’m making with it.

The Duolingo logo: this was a fun one to work on as it required lots of use of the pathfinder tool. While the logo may look like it has many complex shapes, the majority can be broken down into simple shapes like rectangles and circles. And for the bits that can’t the pen tool is needed.

Last week we where given the project brief so came to this session with an idea of what topic we wanted to do. In the session we learnt about different formats that branding can be used in. This helped give me ideas an inspiration for my project.

There are 5 main formats that we can use to assemble our branding campaigns. These are print, moving image/digital, physical, spatial and events. Which type or combination you use would depend on the idea behind the project and who your audience is as the format needs to be appropriate to the topic and target market. For my project on based around getting children more engaged and interested in nature I plan on create a diverse campaign utilising most is not all the formats. Below is more detail on the different formats:

Then we looked at a few examples of social campaigns to get us thinking more about what goes into creating a social campaign.

This is the Save Brixton Arches logo, I love have graphic and bold it is, it immediately commands your attention which is idea for this kind of social campaign.

This is Owlie from the Vogue Fashion’s Night Out Campaign:

Then we looked at some different packaging examples and simple ways of branding items such as using Water Slide Decal Paper. We also spoke about pop ups and looked at some helpful resources on how to create these kinds of effects which I think would appeal to my target audience for the project, young children. This was all useful to me for my campaign as I want to produce a range of physical products.

Here is some technical information the our tutor gave us about different types of paper and what needs to be considered when choosing which type to use for construction and printing.

Now that we’ve studied colour, typography and logos in terms of constructing a brand we where given a mini branding brief in preparation for our main brief. I recently started volunteering for East London Water Works Park in the design and communications branches. So for the mini brief I decided to create a new logo, colour palette and typography for them.

Here is an image on their current logo and a screenshot from their websites home page. It’s a combination logo as it has both an image a words. What’s great about this style of logo is that if you take either part away it still works. It’s ideal for new and fairly unknown brands as this way people can start to learn and recognise the brands name and logo. Both parts fit nicely into circle and square shapes, making it easy to place on products and advertisements. The simplistic vector images of water and a leaf are very nicely made and quickly translate to the viewer what the brand it about. Also the minimalistic colour palette of just different shades of blue with white as a neutral colour also supports the natural, water focused theme. The logo also work well I’m greyscale or in fully black or white. The typography is nice but not that interesting, with simple bold fonts for headings and a basic font for the paragraphs. They have a nice base but I see areas that I could improve to help improve the companies branding.

This is my work on adjusting the colour palette for the branding. The key alterations I made were increasing the variation between the 3 shades of blue, adding some green into the palette and adding brown as an additional natural neutral tone. I will keep white as the primary neutral tone as it brightens up the page as helps keep a calm feel to the brands image.

These are all the compliant pairings in the colour palette and their contrast score, 4.5 is the target to have enough contrast.

I like the fonts used as they’re very legible, making them easily accessible. However, this bold, simple style means a lack of personality so I found 2 fonts that I think bring more character to the branding. These 2 are a lot more fluid and bubbly, imitating water which compliments the logo and colour palette. Below are tests showing all the different contrasting colour options with the 2 fonts. I think these would be best used for big headings and in more informal branding such as social media posts. I would still keep the current typeface for the bodies of text as I want them to be as simple as easy to read as possible.

This show all the different compliant pairings of colours, highlights the diverse typography opportunities with the new colour palette.

Here are 3 possible typefaces for the logo. I kept the same layout as the original but gave the fonts a bit more of a fun personality and tried each in 3 different colours. The dark blue would be for the official logo, then there would be an all black and an all white version and the green one would be for alternative colour scheme.

I applied my favourite 2 to the current logo. I made some colour changes to the logo. I made the 2 blues in the water ripples less similar so they’re more eye catching and made the leaf green to symbolise what the brand is aiming for.

Here are the different colour variations of the logo with my favourite new typeface. There’s a full colour version, an all black one and a monochrome blue one.

I then applied some of these changes to a screenshot of the website. The logo has been recoloured, the typeface is the logo has been changed, the typeface and colour has been changed for the ‘a bold vision’ heading. Also I changed the blue backdrop to a darker shade to make the text stand out more. Overall I think the changes have improved the branding while not taking away from the brand values and the original branding ideas.

I did a few hand drawn sketches of logo redesign ideas. I wanted to keep the leaf and water as symbols in the logo but played around with the composition. This is an example of a pictorial logo which can also be combined with the brand name. I wanted to make the logo more dynamic so I tested different compositions.

I redrew the logo ideas digitally using Procreate and made minor adjustments. I made them in all black as it’s important when making a logo to create it in greyscale values to check the design is good before adding colour.

Here are a few potential colour options for the logos using the colour palette I made or the brand. I think my favourite of the colour schemes is the bottom right one as I think the bright green and blue mixed with the darker blue work well together and are very eye catching. To properly make this logo I would use Adobe Illustrator and vectorise it.

During independent learning week we where given the task visit somewhere completely dedicated to a brand. I chose the Disney Store on Oxford Street in London. Disney is a brilliant example of a brand that has become so successful that they’re able to create a world. The Disney Store is a small example of this, when you enter the shop you’re instantly immersed and surrounded by the brands visual identity and values.

From the outside you’re instantly attracted to the icon logo. This is an example of a Word mark logo as it just consists of a word in their unique typeface. The neon sign is in red as this is the first colour our eyes see so it draws your attention from far away. The logo have a dynamic and fun script style.

No matter what side of the street or direction you’re coming from you’re bombarded with branding as their are glowing images and signs of easily recognisable characters. This is another way of them capturing your attention. The blue in the images contrast the red signs, making them both stand out. Also blue connotes trust, loyalty and accessibility, all key parts of Disneys identity.

Once you enter the shop you’re immersed in Disney’s identity. There are elaborate decorations of characters and sets from the movies, making visiting the shop feel more like an experience rather than just a shopping trip.

The stairs to the lower level are designed to look like you’re walking through the castle. They very cleverly navigate you around the shop. This makes people more likely to visit the other parts of the shop.

There was lots of adverts like this around the shop depicting families surrounded by Disney products. This is used to push Disney’s family friendly image and encourage families to purchase the merchandise.

This bold font was all around the store and is used so that customers can read the signs from a distance. There are a range of sizes on here. The bigger parts are what they want you to see first.

Another thing I noticed was that as you go around the store there is bright colours everywhere to engage the customer but all the floors, pillars and shelves are darker or more muted colours so you hardly notice them and your eyes are drawn to the products.

There where a few quotes like this dotted around the store. I think this is a particularly clever way of immersing you in the brand. They’ve taken quotes from popular Disney characters and using them to endorse and push Disneys values and ideas. This is a great way of making use of all the available space and bringing the characters to life.

There’s also a little viewing area where you can sit and watch clips from Disney films and TV shows. This helps encourage people, especially families with children, to stay longer, increasing their chances of buying more merchandise.

The store was divided into sections so as you go around the shop it was like taking a tour around Disneys catalogue of work. This helps to appeal to all audiences as they covered Classic Disney, Princess, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic and more. This was the walk way from the main Disney store to a smaller section dedicated to Marvel and Star Wars. There was less bright colours, the colour scene was generally cooler tones with lots of blues and grey. This is an attempt to appeal to a stereotypically older and more male dominated section of Disney fans.

There was brand collaboration between Lego and Disney. This is mutually beneficial as both brands gain exposure and in turn sales. Also these big Lego characters are another example of the elaborate decorations.

In summary I visited the Disney Store to explore and immerse myself in a branded environment. The Disney store is a carefully designed place to engage you from the second the store comes into view. As you go around the store you’re constantly immersed in branding and Disneys identity. All the products and decorations are specifically placed to make the customer go around the whole store to encourage them to buy more merchandise.

Typography is another important visual element to consider when designing a brand identity. A typeface holds a lot of power to influence a viewer perception of a brand so it’s important to pick one that reflects the brands identity and values.

Here are some examples of successful brands that have their own custom typefaces:

Disney have a unique and instantly recognisable typeface. It’s a script font called Waltograph, originally titled Walt Disney Script. It’s based on a stylised version of Walt Disney’s autograph so it has a lot of historical value to the brand. The typeface has a fun and dynamic look with its calligraphy style curves that embodied the family friendly, joyful identity of the Disney brand.

The New York Times has much rigid typeface. The font is called Cheltenham and is a serif typeface that was designed by Bertram Goodhue and Ingalls Kimball in 1896. The brands successfully demonstrates it serious tone through the blocky typeface. It also has an elegance and sophistication to it suggesting that their readers have a particular lifestyle.

Duolingo’s custom typeface is called Feather Bold. The brand uses its iconic green that’s seen on its mascot in the typeface to make it recognisable. It’s a legible font with bold lettering, appealing to younger people as well as just making it easy to read from far away. Some of the letters have parts that mimic the wings of the mascot. It has a fun and welcoming atmosphere, aligning with how the brand aims to be perceived.

I looked at a series of different typefaces and these are some of my favourites.

I like how dynamic this typeface is and I think it perfectly embodies the brand as it is inspired by a a figure running. The way the letters lean to the right gives the impression of movement and speed.

Advert is a very bubbly and energetic typeface with lots of playful energy. I think it would perfectly compliment a brand aimed at children.

Aria; Black is a very popular typeface that is commonly used for titles and the parts that need to be bold. It’s rigid and is very easy to read from far away as well as up close.

Baskerville is another popular typeface that works well for larger bodies of text as even in small it is legible while still being visually interesting and having an elegance to its lettering.

These are some of the most common typeface styles and some examples along with a description of the feelings and ideas they connote:

Some places you can get fonts from are Google Fonts, Adobe Fonts, Dalton Maag, Font Meme and Font Library. Some are free and some you will have to pay for a license.