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Project Overview The project is built to teach about logos, brand, and identity. The process of this project was to pick a brand from a list of selected local businesses, create a logo mark based on thorough research, develop a visual identity for the business from a series of 4 brand assets and then creating a printable presentation piece that documents the final solution of the brand.
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Brand Overview The Garment District is “an alternative department store” selling thrifted, vintage clothing as well as costumes. They are sorted into 3 categories (the normal thrift store upstairs, the pound pile, and the costume store). While competitive with other local thrift stores like Boomerangs and Urban Renewals, the Garment District sells not only the clothing, but the experience of what it means to go to the Garment District. The Garment District is located close to MIT (about 15 minute walk away from Kendall T stop) and near many other small cafes and tattoo parlors, making its location another attraction to the allure of the Garment District. And as we move towards the millennial audience gaining financial stability and independence, we see that there is a movement towards not only the internet age of trend awareness, but environmental awareness and overall attraction to thrifting and/or second hand buying (cue Macklemore’s “Thift Shop”). Your average shopper is probably millennial (between the ages of 20 to early 30s) and is also most likely feminine in appearance or identifying as a woman. They are also most likely white, but many young people of color are likely to shop at the Garment District. Many identify with a tumblr movement like “soft grunge” or some other alternative movement like emo or punk. They also are likely to have dyed hair, use canvas bags, or small backpacks. It’s not a district. It’s a store.
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Brand Overview
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Michelle Wang Graphic Design II
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From my research, I first identified what I associated with the Garment District. I then moved towards field research which included extensive photography, client sketches, experiencing the shopping itself, retaking my notes, and then creating my mood boards based on the vibes that I get from the Garment District itself.
Brand Overview
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Colorful Renewed Budget Thrift Young
Unique Quirky Hipster Loud Eccentric Edgy Trend-aware Ecofriendly Millenial Vintage College Vintage Kooky Photogenic
Blogger Fashionable 09
Moodboard 1 From my research, I first identified what I associated with the Garment District. I then moved towards field research which included extensive photography, client sketches, experiencing the shopping itself, retaking my notes, and then creating my mood boards based on the vibes that I get from the Garment District itself.
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Moodboard 2 The second mood board was more reflective of hand type and typography found in department store identity from the 1940s to the 1970s. Additionally I was inspired by the colors used in the ads during this time.
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Sketch Phase 1 From my research, I first identified what I associated with the Garment District. I then moved towards field research which included extensive photography, client sketches, experiencing the shopping itself, retaking my notes, and then creating my mood boards based on the vibes that I get from the Garment District itself. I spelled the Garment District wrong in my first 25 sketches, but I’m not an idiot, I fixed it after.
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Sketch Phase 1
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Sketch Phase 2 For my second phase of sketches, I focused a lot more on script type and various pictograms from my first round of sketches (big sunglasses, cat eyes, cats, etc.). A lot of my sketches involved a combination of very calculated lettering and looser hand lettering elements
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As I continued to sketch I really began to explore the ideas of script and movement of the typography and drawing a lot of inspiration from the Filenes logo, the Two Guys logo, and various other logotype that was found in department stores during the 40s to the 70s.
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Digital Development I began by vectoring a few different variations of my logo exploration, including the cat eye, sunglasses, various logotype(including both script and handlettering), and combinations of the two.
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After critique in class, I decided to pursue the logotype as a script. I resketched my script and then vectored the script and then started to play around with the shape of a crown (going in the pumpkin leaving in the carriage idea). I also started to play with colors starting with inspiration from the 50s and then diverging to colors that were popular in the 80s.
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The first rendition of the as shown here at the top of the page is very illegible at small size. The extreme weight change in conjunction with changing slants was ineffective with scale. The second rendition made the thins thicker and made the slants on all the letters the same and the thickness equal on all the levels. Additionally x height was changed so all the letters match in terms of height. The third rendition tries a lower case g to increase legibility and overall flow of the logotype.
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Final Logo Design My final logo is a script logotype with a shifting baseline on a tilt. The script has a dramatic, but legible contrast. The type is italic and has a generally hand written feel, with high x-heights and low dipping decenders. Additionally a crown was added over the m in Garment that alludes to the idea of getting dressed up after getting new clothing. I chose a rich red violet and a bright gold for my colors to allude to not only royalty, but also to the 80s.
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Benton Sans Bold ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyc Benton Sans Light ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyc
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253, 218, 36 0, 6, 87, 0
Gold Pantone 115C
89, 49, 95 65, 95, 9, 40
Violet Pantone 519C
45, 41, 38 63, 62, 59, 94
Neutral Black Pantone Black C
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Brand Assets For brand assets, I did the basic paper assets (letterhead, business cards, and envelope), clothing price tags to go on hangers, transportation ads, and purchaseable canvas tote bags. These assets represent the boldness of the brand itself and showcase the excitement of the logo without overwhelming the design itself.
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Michelle Wang Rosemary Conroy Graphic Design II Autumn 2017 43