FINALS – REFLECTION

Reflecting on my branding design I was really happy with the outcomes. I thought it looked really clean and suited the brand well.This client decided to give us a spoken brief rather than a writen one therefore I took lots of notes which helped me to reflect on aspects of what he had said. I picked up on the fact that a prominant part of his requiments was that he wanted to include 3 attributes from the students going onto the course which were curiosity, resilience and tenacity, The brief also included the logo being appealling to not only the families and the students that would be enrolling but also so that it could appeal to the corporate market that they would be trying to bring on board for apprentiships etc. This is something I wanted to give a strong consideration for when designing the logo as although there was a need for something modern and unique it needed to be corporate and professional and very clear. I looked into a lot of corporate logos as my research to help me decipher what looked professional and effective for this purpose. Once I had completed the design of an icon that I was happy with I decided to focus on the development of a typeface, I did this by showing the logo with many different typefaces and looking at which one I preferred. I chose the typeface I have used for the final logo due to the fact it was clear, legible and suiting the purpose of the logo. I also felt it balanced the logo nicely where as something to long of too thin would have been unbalanced with the thick and geometric shapes used to create the logo.

d although 

Product Mock-Up

I wanted to have something to show the client how the brand would work on products etc and decided that the most relevant thing to the company would be a website of brochure so I created mock-ups of this and instead of a mock up did stationary as I felt this showed the corporate side of the company that they were looking for. I am really pleased with how this came out and felt it looked clean, proffesional and unique.

Brand Guidelines

Having created the logo and being happy with the colours I decided I would create a brand guideline so that other designers could work of this and also let me see all the elements working together as seen below I just set this out to get everything set out how I want it.

I am really happy with the final design and think it works really nicely. I represented the gradient with the fading bar so that the client could see how the designs worked together. I also showed in the bottom how I created the idea in the “brand breakdown” section to show how the idea came about and how it related to the company as a selling point to my client.

Logo Development – Colours

The colours I choose I thought were too different – The didn’t look like they blended into each other enough! They were very separate and I felt the shapes were separate enough already. I liked the way it all faded into the middle – I feel it gave a sense of a target.In the first example each shape fades with a gradient from its colour to white in the center and this gives effect that there is a light in the centre.
In the 2nd example I faded the colour from the colour adjacent to it – I then added a circle fading from white to clear to give the same effect over the top.

Below you can see a chart that shows the semiotics of each colour and how it is used in advertising. I decided before hand just by my own previous experience of colour theory and also just my gut feeling on certain colours.

As you can see blue is definitely full of the attributes that I would consider perfect of a sales men and also of any educational branding – I think this colour will fit nicely. I also think that the navy and green work well along with how we feel about them.

Logo Development 2 – Back to the drawing board

So I went back to the drawing board and revised my sketches – I decided to develop the idea of the triangle – I thought this worked really effectively for the subject and made a point of the 3 main selling points that were involved with the business.

I developed the sketches into a triangle made of 3 separate sides that make a triangle to represent this – I also felt that this showed a connection to oast houses which I  feel could evoke the feel of kent.

I then laid out the name out to see how the logo would work as a whole – I like the way it sits when it looks as if it is coming out of the logo although upon getting some feedback from someone I know who is in sales they stated that this connotes something being hidden which they did not feel was appropriate as this is a common perception with sales,therefore you do not want your logo to connote this.

I then moved from behind the logo and most definitely preferred it.

I then thought I wonder if I was to reinforced the message of the 3 main attributes mentioned by have 3 triangles – I tried overlapping them but this was too busy – I then tried to think about how I could make one shape of this therefore traced around the outside.

I then thickened the shapes up so they were all even – I then made the center the same so it followed the line of the next shape. I then coloured it in the colours I had used for the triangles.

I decided this would be the icon for the logo – It works really nicely! It is super simple and I think will work really nicely for lots of different ephemera ect.

Logo Development – Idea 1 – Rejected

I headed straight to illustrator to start my logo – As I had decided I wanted something very fluid and simplistic therefore I started off by using my Wacom pad to get some fluid shapes with the pencil tool and create some that would work nicely for my first idea of the journey logo.

From the outset I was not keen on this logo – I added colour and still was not keen at all –  I have rejected this idea very early on as I actually do not think it is strong or powerful enough for the client as this is the way they were explaining the company when they pitched the idea.

 

LOGO RESEARCH

So I started of by looking into some business academy logos as I thought this was the closest thing to what I was looking to create and thought it would be useful to understand what else was out there.The Appco Business academy logo for me is the most interesting, It is clear, simple and concise. I do like the digital business academy one as it is modern and interesting – Very eye catching although I am not sure it makes much sense or has much reason. I am really not keen on the black and white version due to the fact it is to busy and also think it looks quite out dated. I think the memphis business academy logo is quite effective – I think the shape works nicely as a layout! The colours work nicely although the typography its self has been forced to close to fit the imagery and it looks too squashed. I think the colour scheme in the digital business academy is very crisp and looks very corporate and feel blue gives a relaxed and cool feel. I think this works really nicely to represent movement and looks very dynamic.

 

This is the first corporate logo I looked into was this one for DOOH which I think it realy effective due to the fact it is super super simple and clean. I think that the colour is very corporate and modern. Having researched blue respresents trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven through colour theory. This makes it no surprise that lots of the corporate logos I have looked into. I actually really like this blue colour and think it works nicely.

Again the light blue colour is used but this time with a grey – I think this worked really nicely and in my opinion to create a really pure and clean finish to the logo.
I like the 2 different typeface choices – The light and bold faces work really nicely together also I am not keen on the logo being mirrored, I think this is slightly unessersery.

 

This geometric monocrome logo works really effectively – It looks clean and interesting. Being very geometric and modern it makes it very simple and draws attention – I really like that there is a pattern to compliment the logo.

Sketches – Ideas

I started off thinking about a few words that were mentioned when the client was speaking. I tried to this how this could be translated into iconography and logo design. I initially thought it might work to translate the journey that they go on when entering the course which I thought might work well.

I then thought about maybe a target – Something more based upon the end target as I am sure this would be more appealing to the corporate side of the business and the business to business sales element and I also think this is your main aim is the reason you enter a course.

When I started to design a more modern spin on the target shape it started to look like a snowflake which I thought would not be good for the communication of the piece therefore scrapped this idea.

I started to think about the other elements I could play on – I decided I could show this “target” type rational in a long prism shape and make the centre maybe look like a target and I thought this would work to create something super simple and clear!

I then developed this idea and thought that it would work really nicely using bars or rectangles and creating a triangle – this would show the 3 attributes that the client was looking to portray in the logo. I thought this idea would work really nicely and also would stand alone as an icon. I think this would work really nicely in different colours etc.

My next step is going to be to do some research and get an idea for the layout and colours used in corporate logos and how I might be able to work this into my designs.

My Initial Thoughts

When we were being delivered the brief, I made a few initial notes – Something that really stuck out for me what that he spoke about it being important to have “brand value in yourself”. He explained that there some very important elements when they are enrolling someone on the course they to have the potential for having

Resilience
Tenacity
Curiosity

I thought I would try to challenge myself by portraying these 3 elements in my logo design either with colours or symbols.

He also mentioned that the logo would need to be targeting an audience of 18-24-year-olds but would also need to be corporate so that it made sense to the businesses that they were pitching apprenticeships too.

The next stage of my design will be to sketch some ideas out and then hopefully move on to the computer to get some more solid ideas in place.
This is a very quick turn around project so I will need to be nippy with my design process.

KENT SALES ACADEMY LIVE BRIEF

Creation of the brand and logo for the Kent Sales Academy

Project Rationale: 550 of the top Sales Directors and senior sales execs in the UK attended the Association of Professional Sales annual conference in London in June 2016 and were asked a number of questions. The one that was the most significant to the audience was:

“What do you believe to be the biggest challenge facing the sales industry today?”

The No 1 answer was “Lack of talent/clear skills development within the community today”

It is a national problem and it is certainly a problem in Kent and there is a huge demand for sales talent in businesses.

Role of the Academy: The Kent Sales Academy (KSA) will provide well trained and highly motivated sales people to the Kent business community, which will increase the GVA of Kent and the success and competitiveness of Kent business. It will do this by delivering the following:

• Make students aware that sales is an exciting and lucrative career opportunity and enticing them to join the KSA
• Test for the DNA of a sales person which is resilience, tenacity and curiosity to ensure they are able to complete the apprenticeship and are suitable for a sales role
• Run a sales for beginners course in schools
• Finding sales apprenticeship jobs in Kent for 19-24 year olds who will be paid above the average wage for their peer group.
• Run a  series of 3-month sales training courses for unemployed school or university leavers linked to the traineeship funding
• Placing students into one-year apprenticeships where we will deliver a series of sales training courses across the year leveraging the apprenticeship funding