Zodiac - Brand Development

So, I've been really stuck for about a week on this brief, just going round and round in circles and getting really frustrated because I wanted them out of the way quickly! I think I've identified the problem though. I've been too stuck in working out the logo and trying to apply that to things, and it's incredibly difficult and boring to work like that. The whole process should be a lot more fluid.. so playing with the business cards and then going back to the logo and then to the letterhead.. etc etc.

That's what I've been doing today anyway, and I've ended up distilling down the Zodiac logo into a really simple triangle - this gives loads of scope for print finishes and much more, which is in keeping with the tone I'm aiming for.

However, something as simple as a triangle means that the positioning suddenly becomes very important - How to get around this when all the bits of stationary are different dimensions? Something to keep in mind at least

Zodiac - Stationary Development

 Logo alterations

Had a bit of a discussion about these logos, the general feeling is that the symmetry is very feminine, and as the company has no biased towards a male or female audience, symmetry should possibly be avoided. The most positive feedback has been aimed at the non symmetrical variations - so this is the direction I will take.


Business card variations

I much prefer the reversed out version here - I'll stick with that for the rest of the branding as it fits the tone I'm going for, bit mysterious, especially in black.
I'm going to consider the colouring, if any, when I get to the print stages. I'd like any colour to be in the form of an extravagant print process... foil blocking I think - again this fits with the tone and the eccentricity of the target audience.


Development
Variations based on original design direction, only really happy with the 3rd one down.

 

Zodiac - Stationary Development

These were the trials that I bought to the crit - bit late in uploading them - but the general consensus was that each side worked on its own, but not together. So both the backs were working well, and both the fronts when viewed together.. but each side lacked something to tie them together.

Each design is too different, the simple act of picking out on of the swirls and amplifying it has changed the feeling of the brand entirely. So I need to figure out whether I'm going to go with the triangle design or the floral, swirly one - Or if there is a better way to combine the two.

Some pretty lazy Photoshopping right there.

3 Identities - Clarification of Audience

So after yesterdays crit I found it is necessary to give a bit of clarification as to the audience/tone of voice of each identity that I'm working on - both for myself and anyone trying to understand what I'm doing!
It's just something that I never got round to formally stating so - here we go.

ZODIAC THEATRE.
Tone of voice

• Sophisticated
• Cultured
• Art Nouveau
• Has heritage / historic
• A little gothic / has an air of mystery

Audience

• 30+
• People with an interest in history and heritage
• Cultured
• Intelligent
• Eccentric

DECLINE RECORDS.
Tone of voice

• Aggressive
• Immature
• Hand-rendered
• Viral
• Cheap Production

Audience

• 15 - 30 male dominated
• Punk/skate culture
• Reasonably intelligent
• Teenagers with no jobs and no money

M&B FASHION HOUSE.
Tone of voice

• Slightly alternative
• Ready-to-wear (mid range pricing)
• Made to last 
• Classic items with a twist

Audience

• 18 - 30 females
• Not concerened with changing fashions 
• Has own individual style already
• Confident 
• Opportunist

Market Week Sumbission

A really quick response to a live brief set by college to promote a potential marketing event for students and aspiring professionals. I based the logo loosely on the mosaic theme that the college already has, as well as the idea of connectivity and networking. I chose this shade of orange for it's eye catching qualities and energy - thought that really reflected some of the aims of the event laid out in the brief.
This submission wasn't chosen by the board - but the colour choice was apparently well received and the winner of the pitch has been directed to use the colour in his designs, this softens the blow somewhat...

Feedback

 Got some really helpful feedback today, despite previous concerns about not being at a stage where feedback was appropriate. The overall feeling was that I needed to exploit the potential a lot more - which is fine because I'm well aware that I haven't yet - and that is of course the point of this brief.
Feedback on the logos was all very helpful as well, and the areas of confusion only highlighted aspects of this brief that I haven't yet addressed - things like audience and tone of voice have all obviously been considered but not stated anywhere.

Where now?

• Define audience, target market and tone of voice for all 3 identities contained in the brief
• Makes it easier for other people to understand
• Gives me more clarity
•  Rework all logos based on feedback and then move on - not going to touch them again after this
• Starts to speed things up
• Allows me to progress on to the things of real importance
• Get context blog up to date
• Consider formats and print finishes to take stationary forward - start to consider individual merchandising.

Zodiac - Brand Development

After 2 and a bit years on the course, I finally got 'round to doing some swirlies. I also got 'round to remembering how horrifically painstaking they are and how I probably won't do them again for a long time. So much for a quick turn around. Quite like the direction for this one, it's got the opulence of a theatre house, but it's still mordern.. without the need to be all lit up like the Apollo logo.
It's pretty shocking, but a lot of the bit West-end theatres don't even have a brand as such - and just rely on their fame alone to attract visitors - so in a sense this is pretty original!

5 Identities - BRIEF REWORKED

So I've decided to cut back the 5 identities to 3. Reason for this being I think things are beinging to get a bit stale, and 5 of essentially the same thing seems a little directionless now I've got this far.
Just about the resolve the 3rd logo, and from this - instead of simply applying the logo to stationary - I'm going to investigate the application of the brand onto various forms of appropriate merchanise. This is will be far more interesting, and indeed helpful as the results of each resolution will be very different.

Zodiac - Brand Development

Design directions for the theatre - I wanted something with a simple shape that could be used as a repeating pattern or something similar.. however I've allowed some influence from the research I've been doing in other areas, and I like some of the floral motifs found the contextual research for the fashion house. So I think a combination of the two are in order.
The 'Be' event by Sawdust found on my context blog has informed this design far more than it's original purpose of the fashion house. Funny that.

M&B - Brand Development

I decided on a serif typeface quite early on - mainly just to contradict the standard for this kind of company.
Typeface I went for was Serifa Std, sounds like I made it up - but I swear it's real. The other variations are just custom jobs.. they all look a bit too angular though, a bit too technical.

 

I like the last two on this page - I think this logo is getting to the finalised stages - I'm going to do some bits by hand now, my main concern is the ampersand, as this is will influence any 'imagery' used in the stationary.

Decline - Brand Development

Better spray paint brush this time, I think the first one is fine. I tried a lot of variations with masks and things.. I prefer these ones to the ones where the spray paint breaks out from the clipping mask - I like the clean outlines mixed with the messy spray paint fill. Keeps the skate punk theme but gives it a professional quality. I'm also considering this when it's applied to business cards and the like - a clean shape is easier applied than one with an uneven outline.

Decline - Brand Development

Been a while since I've done anything in Photoshop so this was slow progress, but this is the general effect I was after just needs tidying up a little.

Decline - Brand Development

A different take on the standard stencil font - Not sure it fits the skate/punk feel that I'm aiming towards. Going to spay paint it up a bit and see how that looks.

Decline - Brand Development

Got bored of trying to find a decent stencil typeface - so I modified my favourite sans serif at the moment - Avenir. Probably going to go for the 2nd one down.

Decline - Brand Development

Direction 1

 Direction 2

Proposal - REFINED.

Decline - Brand Development

I want to go for a hand drawn approach here. I think hand drawn type can look a bit weak unless it's had a long time spent on development.. A nice short cut is basing the type on a typeface that already exists, or in my case - just picking up the elements that I particularly like.
Got a few synonyms from Thesaurus.com to help speed this logo design up as well - I want something solid for this identity by the end of the day.

5 Identities

Brief 1 
The first brief of this module is split 5 ways. I want 5 quick turn around branding exercises - both to build my decision making skills and to kick start the year - it's been a bit slow since we got back.

So, I started by deciding on 5 companies - all within the creative industries and all completely made up. I spent last Friday coming up with names and starting points for all 5 - see below.


GAMES DEVELOPER

FASHION HOUSE

THEATRE

FILM PRODUCTION

RECORD LABEL