EXPLORATION Background: BRAND THE BORING. Elmwood has given us random professions to create a brand for. This are everyday jobs which must appear to be exemplary and exciting to the customer. Concise Brief: Brand an Electrician.
Brief: Create a brand identity for an electrician. This has been thought of as a ‘boring profession’, the aim is to create a brand and identity for an electrician which adds unprecedented character to the job.
Concept: I want to invent a character called ‘The Electrician’ who will appear as a cult hero of all electricians. To do this I would like to generate a mysterious vibe that will speak for The Electrician, that also says, This guy gets things done. The tone of the brand needs to be strong and simple.
Deliverables: Band and identity Receipt Pack Web Design Tone of voice: Neutral, Modern, Independent List of Influences: Sin City BT’s Guys
EXPLORATION To begin the project I explored imagery that I believed to be reminiscent of the visual style that I wanted to explore. This was related to famous electricians in film and wiring schematics found in automotive design and construction. The aim was to find a visual style which would capture both the complexity of the profession and the eccentric side to the character I wanted to create.
EXPLORATION Following on from the research into electrical schematics and diagrams I began to create some visuals based on them. Here are a few of the designs: The initial aim was to produce a type based logo that was made from a range of electrical elements and illustrated wiring. This was quickly disposed after I realised that it was too complicated for the brand and needed scaling back. Having said this the idea to incorporate little graphical elements of wiring schematics was revisited in the screen based application of the project.
APPLICATION I have applied the logo to a small range of products that The Electrician will carry with him and use to interact with the customer. This includes a letter of terms of contract, a bill/ receipt, an envelope and business cards. These Items appear in the brand colours of black, red and white building on The Electricians brand Identity.
WEB The Electrician needs a web facing element in the 21st century. I have created a plan for a very easy to use website aimed at allowing the user to receive the information they need as fast as possible.
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I have continued the use of electrical elements to illustrate key areas of The Electricians skill set and expertise. When a selection is made the page shifts to reveal an image and a small amount of text, continuing to scroll will reveal more information. The top navigation bar then becomes the primary form of navigation through the website. The Electricians phone number is always visible throughout the site as it is the most important form of contact with the Electrician. Images are visually strong and hope to reinforce the character of The Electrician to the viewer.
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EVALUATION THE ELECTRICIAN was a challenge to ‘Brand The Boring’. What I attempted to do here was provide a slightly different character to the profession. What is implied from the name is that of a character, either in a play or graphic novel. ‘The Electrician’ has one obvious role to play, and that is to be ‘The Electrician’. The name suggests that the person is a professional, at the top of their game. The Name is trustworthy. It also implies that they are the best electrician, with the notion that all other technicians are sub-par. In terms of design I think that the brief when quite far for the two days I had allocated it, with a well refined and subtle logo shown to work on a range of applications I am please with both the design and theoretical choices I have made. If I were to push this further I would have liked to develop more of a cult image for the electrician, given the character some more lore an mystery, this could have been achieved by the production of a short graphic novel about The Electrician, acting as a piece of entertainment and promotional material for the brand.