Gr 604 visual development guide royal enfield student project

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H A R I N I V E N K ATA R A M A N P H A S E I 1 // T H E V I S U A L D E V E L O P M E N T G R 6 0 4 : N AT U R E O F I D E N T I T Y SPRING 2017 SEMES T ER

This is one of the books created for the course GR 604: Nature of Identity at the Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA

T he v i s u a l de v e l op me n t guide

Royal Enfield

CONTENTS

CHAPTER / CONTENTS

PAGE NUMBER

IDENTIT Y RESEARCH

08

THE VISUAL CORE BR A ND INSPIR AT IONS L OGO INSPIR AT IONS

THE LOGO DEVELOPMENT INITIAL SKETCHES REFINEMENTS F IN A L IZ AT IONS FINAL LOGO

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ARCHITECTING IDENTITIES R O YA L E N F I E L D , C R E AT I N G S Y M B O L I C V I S U A L S

In the story of human evolution, the main factor is biological mutation—a genetic change that allows the surviving generation to adapt to the extreme change which is forcing or guiding the evolution.

Similarly, in visual identities, a mutation is often required to tell the world, with graphical reinforcements, of the new direction a brand is adapting towards. The first and foremost visual component that will represent the maximum change is, of course, the logo. When the logo is new or different, the inherent implication amongst the consumers is that the brand, too, is renewed and different.

This book explores deeply the conceptual pathways through which was contrived the new brand identity, and the reasons behind the new logomark and typemark for the brand of Royal Enfield.

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In over 2 centuries, Royal Enfield has visually changed from sewing needles to cannons, to quote a few.

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identity research

THE VISUAL CORE

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BRAND INSPIRATIONS

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LOGO INSPIRATIONS

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PROCESS: A page from the process journal depicting some of the brainstorming for the key phrases

THE VISUAL CORE W H AT B R A N D F E E L I N G S L O O K L I K E

The keywords that dominate the look and feel of Royal Enfield’s brand are independence, individuality and integrity. The new identity, thus, had to be created by defining what these words means in terms of shapes, colors, forms and typefaces.

The new mission statement calls for a brand that embraced the freedom of spirit, courage and the strength of individuality. The new identity, therefore, should also reflect these values in an abstract and definitive manner.

The 3 key phrase sketches were further divided into 3 visually differenct buckets: symbolic, graphic and typographic. Each key word became each of the following key phrase:

Independence / freedom =

Unconstrained, and Autonomous The first step in sketching a new identity was more analysis on breaking down the keywords (independence, individuality, integrity) into descriptive phrases; for example, “independent” could mean either “wild and free” or “unleashed and spirited.”

After defining a key phrase for each keyword, the visual representation had to be sketched, i.e., how would “wild and free” look like? How would “resilient against adversity” look like?

Individuality / unique-ness = Unrefined Minutiae

Integrity / strength = Resilience over Adversity

12 13

T H E E V O L U T I O N O F R O YA L E N F I E L D L O G O S

The previous logos of Royal Enfiled focused on the highly bold, militaristic style of its automobiles. The very first products by the Enfield Co. were bicycle seats, and eventually grew into bicycles, motoscooters, motor cycles, and war cannons among other automobiles.

The logos, similarly, started with sewing needles, bicycles, canons and finally, a R with wings inside a hexagonal bolt that was more of a motobike engine symbol.

14 15

VISUAL STANDARD INSPIRATIONS

Compilation of a coherent visual standards manual is more than making a book. The visual standards are essentially, how the brand looks, feels, behaves and interacts with the audience.

Based on the above criteria, the brand of Royal Enfield, while dominated by its mission statement, looks outward to other successful, potentially future competitors to understand the more succesful visual trends in the world that depict independence, individuality and integrity through colors, shapes, typography, patterns,photographic style, graphic combinations, intonation, language, anatomical descriptions, attributations, visual evolution and structural configurations.

In the following pages, you will encounter the list of brands whose visual standards have influenced the creation of Royal Enfield’s Visual Standards Manual.

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VMWare —

Primary Art Usage

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Stationery

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Pattern behavior

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VMware had built a decent palette of consistent color applications, and taken a chance towards ingrating their graphic elements onto other materials, like packaging, event collateral, print materials, etc.

20 21

Norway —

Typography

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Color Palette (flat, bright, calm)

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Logo Usage Guidelines

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Norway explored a lot of complementary color schemes with unusual type choices and logo placements. The brand represented a friendly voice for travel, which made it a good inspiration for Royal Enfield heading towards encouraging free spirited movement towards new places.

24 25

Gap Inc. —

Typography: Historical Significance

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Type Usage Metrics

26 27

GAP Inc. is a large conglomerate brand in that it connects with consumers commercially across different brands. The existing brand guidelines make it so that the entire brand name also works with its component brands.

28 29

Fedex —

List of Brand Attributes

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Logomark Magnification diagram

30 31

Fedex is a great example of visually replicating into subsidiary branches of a single company by very simple color differentiation. The design is however, stictly influenced by the packaged mail industry, but they have adapted to more than just mail envelopes in a design sense.

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Electrolux —

Logo Evolution Process

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Graphic Expressions (Cropping)

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Electrolux made a clean rebranding decision when it came to developing new visual standards for their redesign. With only 2 main colors and a more modern logo, they were able to capture both the legacy of the brand as well its adaptible and pristine qualities.

36 37

Seagate —

Brand Promise

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Brand Essence

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Personality

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Brand Diagram

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Logo Size measurements

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Color palette diagrams

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Core Elements & Usage metrics

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Tone + Voice

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Seagate has done an incredible job of putting together a large amount of consistent visual elements working in groups in various lock-ups and on multiple surfaces/packages/interfaces.

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LOGOS FOR INSPIRATION

The logo sketches for the new brand is based on the keyphrases mentioned, but it also is inspired by the letters R, E, and the symbolism of wings, compasses and arrows.

Based on this observation, the following pages contain already established logos of companies whose symbols include some characteristics mentioned above.

The main similarity between these and the logo sketches they inspired was the underthread of strong, flexible and free-spirited forms, both symbolically and graphically.

Mazda

R Empire

Automobile Manufacturer

Financial Establishment

Sturdy, trust-able

Royal, regal

Cooper Mini

Riedell

Automobile Manufacturer

Skateboard manufacturer

Small, can be taken anywhere

Adventurous, movement

42 43

Raleigh

Segal

Bicycle Manufacturer

Autonomous, bold

Movement, lightweight

Wichita

Eagleridge Energy

Airport // transit station

Efficient, powerful

Place with lots of movement

These are logo inspirations taken from multiple sources and focus on key words, phrases and elements of independence, integrity and individuality.

Detroit Eagles

Electrolux

Sports Team // Athletic

Home electronic appliances

Movement, strong

Sleek, modern, efficient

Museum of the Moving Image

Quest

Museum // Motion Arts

Adventurous

Modern, digital, focused

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Summit Series

Adidas

Coporate brand

Athletic wear

Reliable, moving forward

Refreshing, new, energetic

Aviator Eagle

Barclays

Optical Products Brand

British Multinational financial services

Uplifting, free, bold

Universal, reliable, strong

These are logo inspirations taken from multiple sources and focus on key words, phrases and elements of independence, integrity and individuality.

Roger Federer

Red Bird

Tennis Player // Athlete

Candy mints by Piedmont

Record Breaker, Award Winning

Loved, found everywhere

Midway Airlines

Kansas City Royals

Travel // Airline brand

Sports team // Athletic

Reliable

Champions, premium

46 47

Aquila

Caruda

Liaison Management

Photoproduction

Integrity, trust, friendly

Light, technological, overseeing

Hyper Compact

Van Halen

Game-making application

American Music Band

Technological, flexible, new-age

Hard-edged, intense, loud

These are logo inspirations taken from multiple sources and focus on key words, phrases and elements of independence, integrity and individuality.

Air Jordans

Weezer

Athletic footwear brand

American Rock Band

Lightweighted, buoyant, trustworthy

Peppy, popular, fresh

Power Reviews

Reebok

Reviewing service

Sports wear and shoes

Informational, bright, serious

Proud, energetic, moving forward

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logo development

INITIAL SKETCHES

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REFINEMENTS

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FINALIZATIONS

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FINAL LOGO

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LOGO SKE TCHES: INITIAL

Contours were an idea explored with the idea od unique land forms and unconstrained formations

Compass needles were a recurring theme in the idea that independence was about moving unconstrained, as well as free to move any direction

Birds, especially eagles, were a motif of bold, independent living things; similarly wings, feathers and arrows were reminiscent of a moving/ soaring object across unrestrained spaces, like air

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UNCONS TR AINED A ND AU T ONOMOUS

The elements of Independence were definitely the easiest to identify, because it was the word directly associated with movement in the system.

Instructor approved for further refinement

54 55

The logo sketches spanned across various forms and elements of the 3 key words and phrases.

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UNREFINED MINU TE A E

The elements of Individuality are all about rare, unusual elements, creatures and things, including tiger stripes, endangered creatures like dragonfish, the shark ray, red panda, and mimic octupi, among other things.

Instructor approved for further refinement

58 59

The logo sketches spanned across various forms and elements of the 3 key words and phrases.

60 67

resilience agains t a dv ersit y

The elements of Integrity are about strength derived from a strong base that allows other elements to pan out in different directions, like a skeleton attached to the backbone.

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LOGO SKE TCHES:REFINEMENT SKE TCHES

The first round of sketches determined that

The sketches moved from paper to computer

the strongest visual camp for a graphic sketch

roughs at this stage, and brought to light the

lay within the parameters of “Independence =

difference between logo sketches that looked

Unconstrained and Autonomous.�

better on paper versus in Adobe Illustrator. It was also a stage to eliminate the less coherent-

The elements of this camp/field were mostly

looking sketches that looked less like logos and

wings, compass needles, arrows, and other

more like icons, grafiti or seals.

symbols of free movement.

Instructor approved for further refinement

64 65

Instructor’s suggestions to move forward with this particular sketch to make it more sturdy and elegant in the next round of computer refinements.

In this first round of computerised sketches, most sturdy hand drawn sketches became bulky and ungainly on screen.

L O G O S K E T C H E S : F I N A L I Z AT I O N

FO CUS ED

The compass shape was an interesting lock-up

in the idea that it was a frame for shooting out of a regular, monotonous zone into the one we’re sure to excel in.

L O G O S K E T C H E S : F I N A L I Z AT I O N

EX PL0 RI NG

This was a relatively new idea in the line of

sketches, but a promising one in that it included the frame of a traditional compass, the curve of

a classic 19th century “R” and a more continuous flow into the strokes of “E” However, it felt more like a brand that was based on a more classicial

mission than the dynamic one of Royal Enfield’s.

L O G O S K E T C H E S : F I N A L I Z AT I O N

FL IGH TY

The bird-based R & E were the most uplifting— literally—of the logo sketches, and with the

addiion of straighter lines, the logo had a lot more sturdiness than before, and looked friendly and

strong at the same time. It was clear that this was the logo sketch to proceed with.

72 73

L O G O S K E T C H E S :T Y P O G R A P H I C R E F I N E M E N T S

ROYAL ENFIELD

royal ENFIELD

Royal Enfield

The typography of the logo was a little tricky, because of the exceptionally beautiful existing ligature in the old logo. Drawing inspiration from the ligature, the new logo explorations were focused on more linear, sturdy typeforms to complement the birdlike direction of the iconmark part of the logo.

Royal Royal enfield

Royal ENFIELD

74 75

L O G O S K E T C H E S : C O L O R E X P L O R AT I O N S

The sketch that was to be finalized was further experimented with single color and dual color variations to choose a final direction.

76 77

THE FINAL LOGO

The final logo is a graphic birdlike shape of the brand initials, R & E, topped by a Northstar-like diamond to depict the directional aspect of the free-spirited movement of a bird.

The logo is reminiscent of the previous Royal Enfield logo in that it is like an R with wings, but the spaces between the wings open up and strengthens the free will of a strong, yet flexible icon of movement.

The logotype is, hence, inspired by the individuality of a handwriting infused with the sturdy and trustworthy edge of a lineal typeform.

MEMORY LOOKS BACK IN ORDER TO MOVE FORWARD QUOTE BY MARTY RUBIN

VISUAL SYNTHESIS A U N I V E R S E , C R E AT E

Royal Enfield is unique, and the weeks spent testing the visual identity of it has only made that more evident throughout the process. Now that we have the identity, the next step is ameliorating it in the directions proposed by the strategy.

Visualizing these strategies takes many forms, from identity development to implementation across different visual factors like photography, graphic elements, typography, colors, tones, attributes and brand tone.

The Royal Enfield, Visual Strategy Guide, and Royal Enfield, Visual Standards Manual are the before and next documents in this compilation, and respectively canvas the reformation of the brand mission and audience strategy, and then bring it to life on the first few directions towards commercial, PR, educational and social usage.

RESOURCES

Adventure Jobs Worldwide http://www.backdoorjobs.com/adventureabroad.html

How Solitude Can Change Your Brain in profound ways – J. Porter https://www.fastcompany.com/3052061/lessons-learned/howsolitude-can-change-your-brain-in-profound-ways

History of “Royal Enfield”. (The Gun) http://www.motorcycleexpeditions.com/history-of-royalenfiled.php

The 500 Most Valuable Brands Around the World Forbes Magazine, Fortune 500 Companies, Year 2015

Why is Royal Enfield still popular? https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Royal-enfield-so-populardespite-having-redundant-technology-and-not-muchimprovement-since-60-years

Motorcycling America http://www.bikernet.com/pages/Motorcycling_America.aspx

IMAGERY

Brand Photography https://unsplash.com/collections/560518/ekla-cholo-rey

PHOTOGRAPHERS WHOSE WORK WAS FEATURED WITHIN DAVID ZAWILA ARTO MARTTINEN BUZZ ANDERSON ANDRES ABOGABIR SCOTT GOODWILL

Royal Enfield archival photography http://cybermotorcycle.com/gallery/royal-enfield

Adobe Stock https://stock.adobe.com

LICENSE ID

STOCK AUTHORS

#74657163

BIJOUSTARR ©

THE LIBER ATION OF SPECIFICATIONS

Royal Enfield, The Visual Development Guide was typeset in Museo Sans, Abril Text and Rift, all of those availed from Adobe’s TypeKit.

Printed on Red River Paper 32lb Matte Doublesided, through an Epson 3880 Stylus Pro Inkjet printer, and bound at Plotnet, San Francisco, CA.

Compilation, Strategy & Design Student ID Instructor Class Semester Program Institution

Harini Venkataraman 04025935 Hunter Wimmer GR 604: Nature of Identity Spring 2017 MFA Graphic Design Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA

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