#03
Name_ Ross Francis Student ID_ 102181 Level_ 06 Module Code_ OUG603
Brief Title Type Of Brief Skills Collaborators Nature of Collaboration
BLADE
Brief
Live branding proposal for a barbers
Create a new identity scheme for an established Barber shop in Wakefield. Create a promotional campaign for the new identity and re-establish the barbers as the best in Wakefield.
Brand and Identity, Concept Generation, Copy Writing, Layout, Web Design Joel Burden Joel and I worked very minimally together on this brief, we did our own independent research and concept generation. I approached Joel with a concept, and we took both developed it independently and took it in two different directions.
Background
Considerations
With 10 years of business, and over 60 years of collective experience, Blades is one of the most respected and and successful barbershops in Wakefield. The brand looks old and weathered and needs a new lease of life. Numerous newer, younger and less experienced barbers have been opening up boutique shops straight from hair cutting college. While they look ‘cool’, they lack the experience and professionalism of a practiced batber. Consider how the existing clients regard the brand. If it is changed too much will it still be recognised? Will older clientele be effected by the work you do to re-brand? How will the brand re-establish itself against newer, more ‘hip’, but less experienced competition.
Solution
The direction I took independently from Joel was to create a simple visual mark that would be used as a wider branding tool. I used a combination of black and orange to create a sharp contrast and visual buzz. I created the type basing it on modern and established sans serif Avenir. The copy ‘Stay Sharp’ is used as a tagline in order to reference the name of the brand and provide a call to action for the existing and potentially new clientele. While the brand needs to remain strong and open to a range of applications, the brand needs to have room to grow to compliment a growing and evolving business.
Evaluation
This brief has been very satisfying to see through to completion. This is the first brief of the yar that I feel very confident about. The brief has allowed me to understand and apply my interest in copy writing to create a stronger brand and identity scheme. I have worked very efficiently on the brief and I have felt that I could take the brief even further if I manage to secure it as a live brief after college. I would like to improve it in a couple of ways, that have been out of my power to complete on my own. I would like to collaborate with a photographer to get some promotional photography for the brand deliverables so that I do not fall into the trap of duo-toning everything. On reflection this looks rather amateur, however my own photographs would have definitely looked worse. I enjoyed working to an agenda and solving the problem of the brief through a range of different creative processes, from creating a more modern and adaptive brand identity, to creating bold and high impact calls to action. The fact that the barbers is in direct competition with others in the area pushed me toward a more tenacious response, which I have felt is a real turning point for me. Having this type of confidence in louder design is something that I would like to follow on with post university. I have a tendency to let my design fade into the background and become uninspiring through a fear to commit. Having a more audacious approach and the confidence to be bold and loud is definitely something I have taken from this brief. I personally quite liked the context of the brief and although I am not particularly into packaging, I respect that a brand must work across these deliverables in some circumstances. While I do not think I will be making a habit of designing for barbers, I like that, in some ways, the brief had elements of fashion, and could potentially invite a more cultural context. In order to extend the brief I would like the brand to be applied to a more 3D context, in terms of the shop interior. This is something that I think may play more of a role in my practice post university and will be something that I will look into. It is either my obsessive personality or my overall outlook on design that would want to carry the brand identity through to this context also.