OUGD504 - Brief 02 - Evaluation

Brief 02 Evaluation

Brief two was a great brief for me. I was a little anxious at the start, because other than the self branding brief for PPP last year, I had limited experience of designing a logo for a client/brand before. It was a massive learning curve for me, especially in gaining experience of liaising with a client and defining specific brand requirements. I knew immediately after selecting my Kickstarter project that I needed to design something bespoke that honestly reflected the product. Fortunately, this allowed me to be true to my artistic background, experimenting with media such as paint and ink and collaging to get my ideas flowing.

My research for this brief was mainly secondary; this can be put down to time constraints and time management. The internet is a very useful resource as it is constantly updated and current, and I saw it as an effective research tool for this project. I used inspiration websites such as Pinterest, ItsNiceThat and BauBauHaus to gather inspiration. I tried to remain very specific in my visual research, in terms of the context of the brand and all that could be associated with it. I looked in depth at existing brands that have the same name as the farm I was designing for. I did this to see exactly how other designers tackled the theme of black sheep. I noticed that a lot of farm logos shared common design themes. For example, I noticed a lot using rounded sans serif, quite condensed typefaces. They also looked processed, edited to seem grungy/weathered or just ‘organic’.

I began by getting my primary ideas down onto paper, sketching designs out using marker pens, black drawing ink, acrylic paints, thick card and collaging techniques. This was really fun and refreshing way to approach a brief for me. I also found some marbelled paper at home and incorporated that into my initial design development. I continually sought feedback from my course mates. People prompted me to keep the designs illustrative rather than pure vectors. This was very useful.

I took the opportunity to contact the manager of the Kickstarter project personally via email. I was nervous about this, but hours after sending the first message I received a reply. I simply asked the ‘client’ if he had a vision for how he would like the logo to look. He was very helpful and gave me a number of pointers to work on which ultimately shaped the final aesthetic of the designs. I then designed several collateral products based on his wishes. Opening up this dialogue with the client was very good for me in terms of building up my experience.

Overall I am very pleased with the amount of effort and time I dedicated to exploring analogue media/techniques. I definitely stuck to my creative roots during this brief, not feeling the need to conform to contemporary trends. I feel my final design answer the brief and the clients desires successfully.