LIVE PROJECT FREELANCING WORK
SZE SHENG CHAN BA(HONS) DESIGN FOR GRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
INTRO
CLIENT JAMES LEE & WINSTON DUKE founders of FATBEE productions The clients want their own media production to appear more professional and need a new identity for themselves and their media production. They will graduate in BA Digital Media Design at London College of Communication this July and are focusing on media and ethnic minorities because they represent these groups themselves.
FATBEE PRODUCTIONS
BEGINNING
James is my friend since we met up at ASEAN society and sometimes we bumped into each other around our school. From the beginning of our friendship, we were always able to talk about anything. Till this February, he made new videos with Winston for their own production. Although they have logo already, their logo is not a final design. They need a final design for their logo so they would like me to help them with this. I was very happy when James asked me to work with them and it was perfect timing since we could do freelance work as part of our live projects as we can meet at our same university during meeting time. As this is my first freelance project, it is helpful for me to have a client that I like. I showed my PDF portfolio to James before I started to design logos for them. At first I was not sure what they would expect from me, and what they like or dislike as they didn’t tell every detail about themselves and their productions. All I knew from them was that they wanted to have a symbol to represent as bee with something related to media / film productions.
INITIAL IDEAS AND DIRECTIONS
Name: FATBEE PRODUCTIONS Logo: Must be simple but fun and energetic feeling Keywords to represent: Bee, Yellow, Black, Simple, Fun, Energetic
WHAT DOES A BEE REPRESENT? Being busy, purposeful, focused, determined, energetic, makes honey (sweet), if it stings – it dies! The Queen Bee is in charge and has lots of workers (slaves) working for her
PREVIOUS IDENTITY PROBLEMS - The logo must be shown and present during any video presentations. - They did not put and add their previous logo in their videos when creating any videos
SOLUTIONS - How can this problem be solved? - How can a new logo be present at the beginning or end of a scene in videos?
RESEARCH
RESEARCH FOR LOGOS
LOOKING AT MEDIA PRODUCTIONS LOGOS
RESEARCH FOR LOGOS
There are many public and private media productions. Google search showed that all of public sectors have a very strong identity and logo while the private / individual sectors didn’t seem to have a logo/identity at all. A lot of the logos that are for media productions have quite a simple design however many appear not very strong. Most logotypes are using different types and materials from film and media. Also, logos are much more masculine and often have dark colours. While, I also looked for logos related to ‘bee’, these logos are quite a bit different looks from logos of media productions. These logos seem to represent to be more happy and fun as moods and feelings. However, FATBEE Productions want to represent themselves as more energetic.
INITIAL IDEAS GENERATION This is a good way of conjuring up different ideas. What are all the possible directions I could take this project? Themes, word, images that represent FATBEE and that it’s about.. It’s a good way of defining the problem and working out how to answer the brief.
MOODBOARD, MOTIVATION & INSPIRATION
BEE, MEDIA, PLAYFUL, FILM, STUFFS RELATED TO FILM (CLAPPER, FILM VIDEO), SIMPLE, BUSY, QUICK, CREATIVE, FUN, ENJOYABLE, OPTIMISTIC, INNOVATIVE
SKETCHING IDEAS
I started to sketch ideas at my house where I can give more focus on sketching and brainstorming properly even through I do not think that sketching is one of my strengths. Thus, I can improve my sketching and drawings step by step and I think it’s easier to use Adobe Illustrator my ideas. It’s very quick and also can change designs a bit at a time. I also learnt new things in the program when I needed to find quick solutions. This also helped with my time management.
FIRST DESIGN
I want to develop a logo that feels ‘energetic’ and ‘innovative’. I want the logo to have a sense of movement to play with the representation of ‘bee’. I also think the logo should have to be simple and fresh. It should work on its own to be able to be printed on various media.
CHOOSING TYPEFACES
Here are some typefaces I’ve been trying out for the text to go with the logo. Logotype and Typography is my strength for my graphic skills. So I want to use these typefaces, the sans serif typefaces give a clean and modern look; something you want associated with feelings of optimism. These typefaces are easy to read and easy to manipulate for representing the movement of a bee.
FEEDBACK FROM MY CLIENT
I sent my client my first designs via email. James said he liked them but had some ideas and opinions. And then, he told me which designs he liked and disliked. One of important things I have to learn is honesty and understandings between client and I as my new lesson for my freelancing job.
Unfortunately, he emailed his new ideas of symbol of bee to me before I would complete my 2nd design. He would like me to try to visualize his design of a bee with my logo design ( text only) so I tried this. I honestly disliked his design but I wanted to try his ideas. So I had to push myself to make variations that were not my style of design.
SECOND DESIGN
JAMES LEE’S DESIGNS
He would like me to try to visualize his design of a bee with my logo design (text only) so I tried this.
WHAT DO I LIKE? WHAT DO MY CLIENT LIKE? From my first and second design that I sent my client, I just added extras to show something different. The first design was to show different initial ideas and concepts. And then he chose one of my first designs so I created this design differently such as typefaces, and symbol of bee. I used Illustrator because it is easy to manipulate. It was interesting that my client liked different styles to me.
THIRD DESIGN
TUTORIAL WITH MY TUTOR I had a tutorial with Darren the other day and with Adam Budges, my classmate. Darren gave me some useful and clear suggestions, which made me think in different ways. Therefore, sometimes I am not confident to decide my logo designs due to James’ and my taste are a bit different. That’s why it’s important to keep talking to others about it. Darren suggested me to explain to James what is wrong with the old ideas and why I designed like this. After this, I decided to redesign my designs and emailed to James my explanation about it. Fortunately, he called me and agreed with my explanation.
BEST CHOICES
CHOSEN LOGO
“I saw them. I think no. 2 is the best after what you said. But is there any way to make it level to the text? I think its too high.� James Lee
FINAL OUTCOME “I like this new logo more than No.2 logo. I can feel how quick does the wing fly. Thank you for helping me. ” James Lee
The logo must be simple but to feel ‘energetic’. The movement of the wings has ‘quick’ and ’innovative’ meaning as a sense of movement to play with the representation of ‘FATBEE’.
COLOURS
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The colours are black, yellow and tones of gray. The black and yellow represents as a bee. The tones of gray represents as defination of the ‘quick’ and ’innovative’ as well as fresh and energetic.
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HOW TO USE THE LOGO
Depending on how the logo is used on screen and printed matters, different rules and guidelines need to be followed. The size of the logo follows the same proportions in both variations. There is a black and white version of the logo as well. This is due to the fact that the coloured logo doesn’t translate well into black and white, the contrast between the colours is not strong enough. The logo can be used on its own, without the tag lines, if this would be preferred, for example on a screen- based work ( video, Youtube, etc).
THE END OF THE PROJECT. I completed my logo design and my client was satisfied with what I had done. The conversation between us often was via email and meeting around London College of Communication. The good thing about it is always nice to meet with my client in person inside and outside our university sometimes. Thus, a quick meeting can clear out questions, making it easier to discuss ideas and show examples. The bad thing about it is our time management did not go so well because sometimes we had our own busy schedules and fitting in meetings was sometimes difficult. At the end, it took a very long time to finish this small freelancing project.
Nevertheless, I’m pleased what I did for my first time as freelancing job since I have learned new things and developed as a designer. From this project I will bring forward new knowledge of working with a real client because having a client is very important to me at this moment. Since this experience, I am looking forward to working on other freelancing projects in the future.
Working with Sheng was a good experience. I provided him with vague brief and direction because i wasn’t completely sure of what design I wanted. Sheng tackled the design with patience and good communication to come up with several designs. He would explain the concept behind each design so that I could understand the purpose of the design and make me feel involved in the whole process. Overall I was very satisfied with sheng’s competence as a designer and would love to work with him again JAMES LEE