Logo go

Thought I would have a go messing around with the logo some more, since I have had a full head of sleep, makes sense to see if I could do anything else by just messing around with the stroke and fills to get a solid brand identity.

Brand Name???

I think this is most probably the hardest part: deciding on a name for my brand that best reflects the values and intentions of the company. I have narrowed possible names to:

• 8Bit Apparel
• Bit Rags
• UpDownLeftRight

So I went with 8 Bit Apparel, as it is not so dissimilar from American Apparel, which gives it a more professional ring to it. Although I have some doubts concerning the name, as it could imply that only 8bit themed clothing would be on the site, but I rely on the fact it is aimed toward my target market of seasoned gamers that understand that 8 bit was first and foremost.

Using basic colours that are readily available within the 8 bit colour gamut gives me a sense of where to take the relative decisions on what colour the logo needs to be. I need to have a colour that is not too offensive on the eyes and makes an instant association with the target market.

To be fair, none of these at the moment are doing anything. Potentially the 8Ba logo could be taken further as it is bold, and uniform in its layout, since I think that the all caps one doesnt do itself any justice because of legibility issues.

Some quick ideas...

Just for kicks I thought I would do some of them myself in the style of Ashley Browning. Incredible guy.

1. Solid Snake (Metal Gear Solid)

2. Link (Zelda) with all tunics (Kokiri, Goron, Zora)

3. Ash Ketchum (Pokemon

4. Leon Kennedy (Resident Evil 2)

5. Alex Kidd (...Sega)

6. Sonic. Well meant to be

7. Mario

New Brief

First Crit

The first part of the crit went quite well, starting with a quick talk about what we intended to do concerning the new brief and put forward any major issues we thought needed addressing in the follow up discussion.

My feedback for the initial discussion was well recieved, that my intentions, values, and ambitions concerning the format/deliverables were clear and easy to understand. The main negative was that there was no need for an inclusion of the 'Britishisms' element within it, since it only confused my brand value and detracted away from what should be a much easier brief. 

For the first time this year, my blog is now up to date (with this brief) and is reflected by the positive feedback I got back. Overall my documentation was progressive, easy to follow, my level of analysis was of a good standard, with minimal waffling (for once) and that my organisation of materials was 'laid out in a rational way, makes sense' with the only main negative was to make my blog much cleaer in terms of presentation and the posts to be a different colour. Even an extra comment on good time management....

To review, the main things I need to do now are:

- Research into in-game jokes; find gamers and collect data

- Lose the British linguistics; it only complicates things

- Re-consider propositions

- Structure what I have time to do

- Pick 3 main game characters to have for next week.

- Final brand name and logo finalised for next week.

The Brief

This brief has many elements from other briefs thrown in to create a new one. The breakdown is as follows:

• Creating a brand/identity for a fashion/clothing company, along with promotional methods to effectively campaign the values of the brand/company (asos, in the logo)

• Research driven project; knowing your target market, background of subject matter and necessary target audience research (asos, in the logo, street talk)

• Character design/illustration as image based on subject matter relative to my own interests and views, as identified by relative research into subject (10 things you should know, street talk, my dogs are barking)

This hopefully gives me a focussed enough brief to work with, a clear enough design direction, but allowing me some space to work freely.

*Sorry about the format, issuu was being a pain and not uploading. Will upload a better one later.

Workshop FMB

The brief writing workshop was incredibly useful, and helped identify what I wanted to do for the final brief of the year.
I was not entirely sure what I wanted to do for the final brief, nor what we were going to be doing for the session, but posing the question, 'what do I want to do?' helped me start to identify and establish my interests within the briefs I had chosen. I wrote down a load of things I wanted to do, how they could be put into a product and within a context.
Things like:

• Character design
• Screen prints/print production
• Hand type
• Book design
• Editorial w/image
• Branding/Logo design
• Research driven
• Clothing

I then considered the ideas and concepts with what I had written down into products/concepts and then made a list of main factors (as above) Now I had some material to work with, I chopped, changed and checked over various elements of the brief in order to tailor my own one. I wanted the brief to have potential for a decent amount of work, but leaving myself some room for fun.

In particular I chose:

• Branding/logo design 
• Research driven
• Character design/illustration
• Hand type/type
• Print production

Still have not come to any formal conclusions as of yet. Much thinking to be done.....

Briefs to choose...

For the last brief of the year I would like to produce something that is portfolio-worthy, but also reflects who I am as a designer, where I see myself and how I place myself into the industry.

I had only touched on brand and identity briefly this year, which is something I would like to pursue, since it is invaluable to know as a graphic designer as it encompasses alot of the practice, and is found almost everywhere. 

Ideally I want to be exploiting the workshops more, since I have not had a proper chance to use and experiment with screen-printing or advanced processes such as spot-varnishing or foiling.

Brief 1: My Dogs Are Barking

• Research driven
• Freedom of format
• Freedom of tone and audience
• Wide range of subject possibilities
• Room for conceptual thinking

Brief 2: asos campaign

• Branding/promotion for fashion
• Understanding the audience is key
• Asks to 'be challenging'
• Freedom of format
• 
  

Brief 3: 10 Things You Should Know About...

• Love the idea
• Research driven
• Wide range of subject possibilities
• Publication design
• 'one of a set of similar'

Brief 4: Street Talk

• Chance to do large scale design
• Freedom of subject matter
• Advertising
• Challenge: design for high impact
• Directed at 'youth culture'

Brief 5: In the Logo

• Logo/branding
• Understand brand ethics
• Research driven
• Range of companies
• Fashion related branding