OUGD602
Brief Produce a range of self-promotional material for delivery through print and/or electronic media as appropriate to your individual professional and design practice. It was important to consider the necessary platforms for me as a designer and to utile them in a way that would help me further my practice as a designer.
Brief
Personal Branding
OUGD602
Research I started off by looking at existing logos of brands/designers/studios that I really liked and started to analyse why I think they were successful. Robot Food was bold and to the point, something I value in logo design. Type designer Guidodeboer, has a really unique letterform structure it represents him as a designer as he works with lots of hand style typography. The post by type goodness (middle right) influenced my logo outcome due to the interesting shape of the letter ‘a’, I liked how this type had personality and stood out amongst very clinical logo designs. Essentially I felt that the individual letters would be stronger as a logo if they were quite bold and unique, however it was also important that there was consistency amongst them and that even if they stood alone they would share common features in the way they are designed. It is also essential that the logo not be too eccentric as it will be applied to a number of branding deliverables such as Instagram, website, creative Cv etc. So it needs to be subtle enough that it can co-exist alongside the main content or piece or design.
Research
Personal Branding
OUGD602
Initial Ideas I tested out several existing typefaces, considering ways I could adapt them to make them more unique. I liked the sharp angularness of GT Sectra but also felt it was strong enough that it didn’t need to be adapted. I wanted to make sure the logo was truly personal to me and that I didn’t just download a typeface. I started to draw out how I wanted the ‘K’ to look as after this was established I could start applying similar design aspects to the other letters. Using a grid helped me get an idea of how wide the letter was and then to consider this when designing the other letters. The boldness and block style of the letters meant that I could play around with stacking the letters. Although the main logo that I use on different platforms is a normal line: K A T. I decided to experiment with the composition of the letters for the business cards. I wanted the logo to appear more compact and to exist on the business cards in an interesting way.
Personal Branding
OUGD602
Development I decided to design my business cards as portrait instead of landscape. I then experimented with writing the type downwards instead of across. This worked well with the adapted logo. I added the circle of colour behind my logo because I wanted to incorporate colour but not in a way that would draw too much attention. I looked back at some previous work and noticed that I often used circles as a shape in my work, to carry on this feature I applied them to the logo on the business cards. I don’t think it matters if I have different layout versions of my logo as it is obvious due to the unique letterforms that they are the same logo. I mocked up some postcards to get an idea of how the logo would look on other branding assets. I think postcards are a nice way of having some physical versions of work from the portfolio without providing an entire portfolio. Like a business card it can be handed to a potential contact. The logo also worked consistently on my website, again the boldness stood out but was still subtle enough that it doesn’t take away from the images on the website.
Personal Branding
OUGD602
Production I scanned some different paper stocks and overlayed my final business card design on top to get an idea of what the business cards would look like when printed. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to print finalised versions for my cards so the prototypes are quite flimsy and not made from the actual stock I wanted them to be printed on. I also applied the logo to my Instagram page. I am learning more and more the importance of Instagram mainly for collaborations and for people to have access to the production side of my design. I usually post in sets of 3 to allow for consistency
Personal Branding
OUGD602
Outcomes I am happy with my branding. I think it fits with my style of design and when applied to several platforms such as website, Instagram and business cards it looks highly recognisable and consistent.
Personal Branding