Probe
Prescribe
Brief Blade
Progress
Present
Development Book Collaborators:
Joel Burden
The Corner
The corner was was developed from a a concept developed for an ad campaign. I felt that the triangle was a good representative of the word blade and also places importance on the corner, and doing things the correct way. The triangle is the shape that cuts. I felt the shape had a resonance throughout the barbers and could be manipulated simply to produce a range of intersting images and icons.
I stated to experiment with the shape and typography digitally. Joel and I worked away from each other on this process to be uninfluenced by one another. This is a contrast the the DRIP brief where we worked very closely throughout the entire brief. I still feel that I haven’t quite hit the visual style of this brief yet. I will see what Joel has produced and see if we can reach something from what we have both created.
I wanted to experiment with the use of a pattern. I felt a pattern would be important as there would be plenty of opportunity to include it, especially if the brand wanted to produce its own products, or within interior decoration.
Joel’s Visuals
Joel’s visuals started to look quite like the visuals I had initially created. Joel developed a concept for an ad campaign that was based around male sporting icons, and their relationship to the importance of corners. This seemed an appropriate visual, however we would need to know how to create these without the copyright issues.
The visual stye that Joel built was very strong. I felt that the pattern may be used too strongly and has to be a more subtle element of the branding. I liked the corner element and the centralised logo. I felt the type used was strong and high impact, however I would like to have a closer look at the typography.
My Visuals
After seeing Joel’s visual response I realised that we were taking the brief in a separate way. I did not want to dwell on my initial idea of the ‘corner’ and decided that I needed to improve the brief and concept. Based on Joels type choice I created a word mark, that started as a sans serif type that I modified. I then moved forward with the brief looking into colour choices and promotional stategies.
The original word mark looked slightly childish. I used a more condensed type that made the brand look tacky. Joel used a bolder sans serif that had a more solid and stronger structure. This gave the brand a really strong tone and became strong enough to stand alone as a word mark.
As I finalised the letter forms, I started to experiment with kerning and a sub header of ‘barbers’. The letter forms needed some finishing touches and I felt that an increased tracking in the type made the barbers look more sophisticated.
I wanted to keep the triangle identifier as a brand tool that could be used within brand and promotional material. I think the simple shape lends itself to more complex visual applications, potentially in motion graphics, or in a pattern.
I started to introduce colour. I chose a vibrant orange. I looked at introducing the triangle and started to figure out a system of scaling the triangle, this would be important to keep consistent over the brand.
Business Cards
I wanted to introduce a format to the logo to see how It could be used to design some brand materials. I wanted to start with business cards and the format is small and would help me to layout some infomration to see how body copy and content would work with the logo.
When designing the business card I tried a multitude of different colour combinations and visual styles. The type kept the look consistent, but the layout and stroke embellishment was different on each. I felt that this structured approached kept the layout sharp and high impact like the logo and word mark.
I started to get close to the visual style I wanted, as part of an increased range for he branding, I devised a subsidary logo for the Academy. I felt the sybol was reflective of the academy process where students are overseen by qualified barbers. I started to move forward with other deliverables to increase the scale of the information I was presenting. I wanted to start creating a strong visual style, so my experimentation became more focussed.
I started to get a style that I thought was moving toward a finalised scheme for all materials. I felt the style was simple, but also had the abilty to expanded in screen based deliverables, and work in a rang e of different other applications. By starting with text heavy components I have been able to create a visual style that is easier to apply over other deliverables with less text heavy information.
I started to think about how the shape could applied in other ways. It could be used to split a canvas, or used as a pattern, these are the initial two ways it could be used but I think there a possibilities for more dynamic applications.
Website
The brand needs an updated website. I am going to design the website, but first I must put thought into the content, and what must be contained in the website. In addition to this I need to think of the user and what the website will be needed for.
I used Adobe fireworks to draft out the website. I felt that this was good for an initial draft and from this point forward there only needs to be visual development. I feel that the scheme works well and that the interface is good. I am slightly unsettled that I have had to use duotoned images throughout. However this is difficult for me to change without recruiting a photographer.
I drafted out some of the rules I put in plae to form a loose guideline for the other things that I was to propose. I will create further products now that the visual aspect fo the brand has been designed. I am still unhappy with a few things, but these might be out of my control in a student based setting. I think this would be the time that I spoke to the client about where we take the brand next and what their budget can afford in terms of products and other design devlierables.