OUGD504 - Brief 02 - Feedback/Crit Session

Today we had a group feedback session in the studio. I found this session incredibly useful in helping me to refine my design ideas. We were asked to sum up our chosen organization and outline the defined design requirements to the group. I stressed that I wanted my design to reflect the earthy, organic nature of the farm and my justifications behind its slightly rough and ready hand rendered nature.

I printed off all of my development work that I had done up until the crit in order to open up more discussing during the crit session. General feedback was very positive and people seemed to appreciate the painterly quality that the black Indian ink gave to the aesthetic of the logo.

Key points of feedback:

Consider getting rid of the legs from the sheep icon. This would give the logo a more geometric appearance and would lend it to be used in more contexts. A circular shape would make it instantly look more like a traditional logo.

The 'harsh' sans serifs used in the later designs don't work as well and don't fit the context of the farm. They are too bold and 'corporate' and contrast a little bit too much with the delicate quality of my original illustrations.

Play around with the size of the sheep, and if you don't feel the need to remove the legs perhaps shorten them because at the moment they look a little bit too long and distract from the upper part of the sheep.

No need to include 'Established 2016', this is way too 'trendy'/indie/hipster and doesn't really fit the overall aesthetic of the current design. The illustration and use of type works well in it's own right.

Consider making the sheep's head black just like the body and invert the subtle facial features to make them white.

Experiment more with hand rendered type. This will give the logo a unique and bespoke quality. If you are going to do 'hand rendered' do it properly to see how the type and icon interact. Sometimes digital typefaces compliment hand drawn imagery well, but for the purpose of this brief it will probably work out nicer if you go fully hand rendered.

I agreed with the majority of the feedback given and see it as very positive and constructive. I immediately experimented with taking away the sheep's legs but it just didn't look right. It made the illustration appear to be floating and I think taking the legs away made it look less of a sheep. The legs add context to the simplistic icon. I experimented with the length of the legs however, shortening them slightly which actually looked a little better. Here are my amendments from the crit: