COLLABORATION
Critique
Week one of month eight of the program was tasked with the creation of logo ideas in the form of thumbnails through ideation. Baldowski (2021) states that ideation is the process of idea generation through specific techniques. After creating at least thirty thumbnail designs, the objective was to narrow down these designs by circling the three strongest drawings and explaining why they are the strongest for the brand. The three strongest designs chosen were numbers 3, 5, and 19.
Is It Unique?
Dr. Baldowski offered in critique that number three’s design is “easily recognizable, but is it unique enough?” Consider playing with how the blocks can be presented to move away from the traditional stacking. So, to keep from having a cliché design, other variations were created with different stacking options for the blocks.
In week 2, notes regarding the strengths and weaknesses of each thumbnail were made. Then, the six strongest thumbnails were taken, and refinements were made to show the progression of ideas.
Sizing Matters
For design number 1, Dr. Baldowski offered it would be important to define the sizing for reading the name. Noticing this design would be hard for the audience to read the title, it was given less attention and the logo started to go in another direction.
Too Cliche
As for the next design, a variation of the stacked blocks, Dr. Baldowski stated the design is very common and has been seen before, so it borders on cliché. Different versions of stacked blocks were drawn, but all of the options just seemed too cliche.
Rework the Spacing
Dr. Baldowski said that design number 3 needed to be reworked as the spacing with the leaf and name caused the leaf to feel separated. So, a version was drawn with a box around the design to try and group the objects together, creating less space between objects.
Is It Recognizable?
The last three designs were very similar to each other. Dr. Baldowski proposed that while design six adds the face, it is important when using an icon as a letter to make sure the letter is recognizable as some viewers who have not heard of the brand may not understand the design.
Month nine posed the job of confirming cohesion throughout the brand so far in the process and creating concept sketches for media assets to be created. During week 1, vision boards were posted, along with sketches for media assets.
Add A Logo
One piece of advice from Dr. Kratz was to add the logo to the vision board. So, a logo was added to the revised vision board in the middle of month nine.
Abbreviating the Name
Also, Dr. Kratz offered that since not yet at a point to shorten the brand’s name to an abbreviation, to use the full brand name on media assets instead of the abbreviated “GDT”.
During week 2, some students decided the cohesion among the designs thus far did not properly represent the brand, causing new brainstorming and redesigns. Ostrom (2022) states that in order to create cohesion for a brand, one must first define the positioning for the brand; what the customer values, how the brand differs from others, and how the brand will deliver customer needs. So, redesigns were made in hopes to strengthen cohesion that better represented the brand.
Logo Critique
The critique offered by Dr. Kratz this week was that the logo tree concept could work well for the brand, especially if it stays “loose” rather than mechanical. From this advice, the decision was made to keep the logo hand-drawn and include other hand-drawn aspects in the redesign process for a “natural” look that would complement the brand’s stance on natural elements.
Next, media assets began to be created, starting with the letterhead package. According to Hampton-Smith (2022), the letterhead of a business can often be the first interaction a customer has with a company. Other times, it reinforces the brand’s identity. So, it’s important to get every detail right. Having never created a letterhead package before, the designs were lacking in a few areas, the spacing being a major one. Also, the format of the business card and envelope made it hard to see where the front design stopped, and the back design started. Editing needed to be done to show clear cut-offs.
Letterhead Typography
Dr. Kratz offered that the typography on the letterhead and envelope needed to be adjusted to ensure ease of legibility, so the typography would stand out from patterns and create margins to engage readers. Changes were made to both the letterhead and envelope to increase margins for better legibility.
Logo Wordmark
Another note offered by Dr. Kratz was to consider using the dark brown color from the color palette for the logo wordmark instead of black or gray, for better unity. Considering this would create better cohesion within the design, the wordmark was changed from gray to dark brown.
Logo Animation
The final week of month nine consisted of submitting final designs and making any edits necessary. One of the last media assets to be turned in was the logo animation. Dr. Kratz suggested that the original logo animation had lots of spinning. She recommended allowing the tree colors to spin in faster, and that the wordmark could arrive in a less dizzying way, like a fade-in or fade and wave. After viewing the logo animation again, these suggestions were considered and the spinning in of the tree colors was refined, and the wordmark was edited to allow for an entrance more pleasing to the eye.
Original Logo Animation
Self-Evaluations
Finally, month ten arrived with the start of self-evaluations. Each week as designs were turned in, a self-evaluation was also to be submitted. Kay (2019) says that evaluating one’s own designs starts by asking the client questions to confirm the designs align with the client’s objectives. During month ten, the project was to create a brand playbook. The process started off slowly. To start with, the brand vision board was revised to represent the changes made during the previous month. Then, using the vision board as a guide, the playbook was started. The table of contents was designed to assign pages of the book, and a few elements such as color and imaging were added. The first week of self-evaluation offered a few critiques for the playbook:
#1
More repetition and texture through patterns needed to be added to the brand playbook, and whitespace needed to be properly defined.
#2
Likewise, the expression of the playbook was starting to form; however, cohesion and overall style lacked. The self-evaluation offered that improvement of consistency of application be done by replacing placeholder text with proper definitions and explanations.
#3
Lastly, folios, or master page numbers needed to be added to appropriately define the pages and coincide with the table of contents pages of the playbook.
Week 1 design
Final design
#4
As the month progressed and the playbook grew, more cohesion was seen in the design. During week 2, the self-evaluation stated more cut-outs needed to be created to strengthen the look and feel of the brand playbook, creating cohesion through repetition.
Week 2 design
#5
Final design
And again, in week 3, the self-evaluation stated a final reminder to add master page numbers to the playbook as a guide. All self-evaluations were taken into account and multiple refinements were made before the playbook was finally turned in at the end of week 3. Still, during week 4, a few more edits were made before the peer-evaluations were given.
Peer-Evaluations
Image Quality
Only one of the peer evaluations from the two given offered critique for the brand playbook submitted. Meagan proposed image quality in the playbook be updated as some images looked to have low resolution.
Whitespace
Also, Parish saw more whitespace was needed in certain areas as some pages felt overcrowded and visually hard to concentrate on due to all the content on the page. Considering these critiques given, image quality was checked, and spacing changes were made to hopefully achieve a more pleasing look.
References
Baldowski, A. (2021). 1.2 Lecture: Ideation. Retrieved from Full Sail One: https://online.fullsail.edu/class_sections/154728/modules/517162/activities/3035559
Hamilton-Smith, S. (2022, February 17). Design a stunning letterhead: 10 expert tips. Retrieved from Creative Bloq: https://www.creativebloq.com/graphic-design/letterheads-tips-11121378
Kay, K. (2019, September 25). Keys To Proper Self-evaluation Of Your Design Projects. Retrieved from My Story:https://yourstory.com/mystory/proper-self-evaluation-of-your-design-projects
Ostrom, C. (2022, March 26). How To Create A Cohesive Brand Identity, Personality, Voice, Story, Name, And Promise. Retrieved from Map and Fire:https://mapandfire.com/blog/how-to-create-a-cohesive-brand-identity-personality-voice-story-name-and-promise/