Market Week - Identity

Recently completed and handed in today, another day/short Identity brief set, again live but for part of the University programmes in the future. Market week, is all about producing shows/exhibitions of work by people involved in Leeds College of Art wether they are Students, alumni, staff or associates. The shows/exhibitions are a basis for networking among the creative community and to build business opportunities for both applicants and 'customers' The concept seems strong, and interesting to create some visuals for them. The brief asks for a logo, then some sample layouts of potential outcomes. 

With such a wide focus for visuals, taking a more conceptual approach would allow me to create more universal visuals but still with an underlying theme. Ive been recently been working on spirograph stylised patterns (shown above) for another brief/personal use, so as a starting point worked with that.

Reverting to solid colours instead of line drawing created some interesting patterns, and with 'overprinting' separate colours, allowed for real potential.

Combining different colours together created much more interesting patterns, and became the basis for the concept I was trying to visualise. Combining individual talents (separate colours) to provide new and exciting opportunities. From there, the design progressed and type was introduced.

From L-R 

Logo

Invitation

Banner

leaflet/promo layout

Typeface used - Gotham Rounded

In the final layouts, I included a QR code to the designs to add a little depth/third dimension to the design. A QR code is a interactive barcode using a smartphone or webcam for augmented reality (or in this case) an interactive link to an online resource, wherethe a image, website or message. I included it to allow the user to be directed to a website (in this case the college website) If you have an Android/blackberry/iphone with a barcode scanner application, try it out!

I really enjoyed this brief, another relatively fast turn around piece of design to add to the portfolio. Really happy with the outcome, and will hopefully continue with more opportunities like it.

Guy Ritchie - Poster Development

Back to the original idea of simple type on colour, has been developed further with a small illustration depicting part of the film in someway, not always critical but still important to the plot and usually its many twists and turns throughout. With the posters I didn't want the obvious phrase/imagery with each film that is always remembered, but to provoke a new look on the film pull the audiences curiosity towards the poster. This as a starting point depending on the crit, will be the basis of the packaging/cover of the films. I feel once a starting point has been decided, I can move forward.

Thoughts please!

MWA identity - Typeface No2

Inspired from the second MWA logo created, more defined letterforms were produced which lead to another typeface, again not as time consuming as expected, but work the investigation, a definite improvement over the first typeface, much more readable and experimental with diagonal lines.

 I feel much more successful, and has the potential to expand on.

MWA Identity. The next step.

From feedback of tutors/fellow students, I feel a slight revision of the logo was needed to see if any improvements could be made from what can be seen. It was questioned where the or not the colour combinations were required to enhance the logo and if the design was strong enough in a pure line-weight form.

Now the colour has been taken away, I feel the design had been 'over worked' and wasn't necessary to improve. Although I am happy with this logo, a little more development has been attempted to produce a more compact design.

Just mixing up what I already have, layering the shapes/letterforms created and dissecting different strokes to form new patterns, With the letters being M, W and A, I like the idea of symmetry with the logo so it made sense to just build from that with whats been produced. With the development, I ended up with the logo below. Although I do like the outcome, I don't think the architect is a big fan of Van Halen, which it only seems to remind me of every time I now look at it. If I'm ever in the position to design the identity of a heavy metal band with the initials 'MW' this will be the first place I look.

Laser laser.

As part of some practice for future briefs and the handmade craft fair coming up, Both Rebecca Liggins and myself took the opportunity while the facilities were quieter, we would take advantage and practice with different materials.

The idea was to produce stamps with a variety of words and phrases to sell. The chosen material was lino which works great with oil based inks, unfortunately isn't the case for stamp pads. Even with sandpaper and distorting the surface, the pads took little-no ink at all, with disappointing results. Back to the drawing board.

Element Skateboards - Initial thoughts

Identity Brief 1 - Matthew Whatley Architecture

So originally I was to produce this brief in a week and see what I produce. Although a challenge, for a starting point to possibly expand the brief, I would produce an initial identity in a single day. Identify a typeface to work with, create a logo and produce a sample of business cards to consider stock and layout. To make things a little more set in stone, I proceeded to digital print, and booked myself in for 3pm for double-sided business cards on 3 stocks and planned my day.

As a starting point, I asked matt to collect a few pieces of his work, pieces of inspiration and went from there. His initials being MW was the main focus at first because of the reflections/patterns that could be created, and the structural value of the characters boded well for a logo and progressed from there. 

Could the pattern be seen more as fabric that structural? Variations on check didn't feel as strong as individual characters. 

Using a piece found on welovetypography.com, adapted the W to work with MW and play off the triangular forms created.

Transferring the design over to graph paper allowed for more control over the design, and made translating it to a digital copy much easier.

Working with the sketched logo idea of triangle shapes, just began manipulating with curves and joining lines to create more organic shapes and get some feedback, I really like some of the imagery produced (including the logo treatment at the bottom of the document) but I don't feel it reflected the architectural value of the Matthew and work he would produce. I feel this in itself is a starting point for a possible typeface treatment?

With a focused logo design decided, I began with colour to enhance the design. With the rules of logo design to consider, I kept the colour palette to a minimum and worked with what I had to develop the logo. The original request/brief suggests red as a colour to work from. With Matthew open to suggestion after development, I kept with more neutral tones to develop from, which I felt benefits the design. With colour theory in mind, colours which demonstrate structure, ethics and environment were considered.

Choosing a typeface to represent Matthew and his practice was through a number of directions. Knowing Matthew as a good friend already put me in a good position for making faster decisions over type, Small caps, all lower case or a comfortable more conventional set up. were considered.

The final chosen typeface is Arndale Mono. A similar typeface 'sika' was also selected but was only a small caps typeface, and Arndale mono was chosen for the lower case characters. the addition of black tones and the green triangle gives more depth to the design, and green to symbolise positivity, ethics, trees, structure.

In the printers! james working his magic, managed to get in at 3.15, still pretty good going for a days work. Really happy with the results. The three stocks were 245gsm coated matt white, watercolour paper, and slate green mountboard (images to follow for MB) to get some variety of stock, and different considerations of cost. really happy with the results, and demonstrates the ability to make informed decisions in a matter of no time at all. 

The next logical step is to complete the identity stationery of Matthew Whatley for letterheads, compliment slips and a reproduction of his CV, which will be completed in due course. In terms of the logo development, I feel there is real scope to produce a working typeface in fontographer with the logo as a starting point.