REPORT MA 02 - LOGO BY ANNIKE HODGE

Transcription

1 REPORT MA 02 - LOGO BY ANNIKE HODGE INTRODUCTION The task of Mandatory Assignment 02 was to create a logo for Food and Malt, a new food company that would introduce the Norwegian population to "Dude Food", quality food and micro brewed beer. This report shows the research, development and creative result of designing a logo for Food and Malt. Through thorough research I would be able to understand the parameters of the logo, and define the characteristics that it should show. I investigated the competitors, their product history and design choices, and established a set of parameters which would help the logo distinguish itself from the competition. I approached the development of the logo through my research findings, and followed with a set of steps toward formal and conceptual decisions. The focus was to combine my research and formal approaches into a memorable, timeless and effective logo. The result was a logo that attempted to emulate the fusion of traditional and modern food, the combination of food and malt beer, and the design style that the target group is attracted to. All design choices were eventually presented in a design manual that presented guidelines for any users of the logo. It included explanations of choices of typography, colour, form and use. 1

2 RESEARCH In this section, I will define the parameters within the design assignment. This section is a key first step, helping to define the limitations and explore the core values of the client. I will begin by defining the product history and characteristics of Food and Malt, provided in the brief. I will use the Briefing Questions provided in the Logo Design Workbook by Sean Adams to summarise the key information of Food and Malt from the brief. I will then use research to investigate the main competitors of the product and explore their design choices in their locations, websites and other products, with a focus on their logo design. I will then look at their history and product characteristics. Food and Malt: Food and malt is a collaboration between Anders Braathen and Even Vehla. Anders Braathen has a background as a master brewer at Brooklyn Brooklyn Brewery, New York and Nøgne Ø brewery In Grimstad. He also worked as a restaurant manager at Uncle Billy's Brew and Que in Austin, Texas as well as a cook on Rita's Bar and Diner In London. While abroad the friends discovered Dude food as a growing trend. But instead of Kebabs and Sausages as a meal. Customers can instead enjoy homemade good quality food on the streets or at a pub. With their new company food and Malt the friends want to introduce this food culture combining it with the microbrews trend. Name of establishment: Food and Malt Location: Meat Bazaar, Bergen Norway Target group: Young urban individuals between the ages of 18 and 35 interested in culture, food, design, trends and nightlife Product Characteristics: - Homemade quality food that replace street and pub food. - Combined with microbrews trend - Dude food - Traditional with a modern twist. - Cheap. Dishes to around kr. - Good quality home made lunches and evening snacks and a great selection of beers complementing each meal. Design: Hipster, letterpress, quality, homemade, professional. 2

3 Using the information gathered in this section, and by using the Briefing Questions provided in Logo Design Workbook, I began filling out a form that distilled the history above to a clear format. Positioning: Purpose: Mission: Composition: Culture: Personality: Client goals: Growth: An up and coming substitute to street food, providing quality homemade meals with craft beers. It is relevant to the market because of the increasing trend of the microbrewed beer, which appeals to a wide demographic of beer enthusiasts, lovers of quality food and hipsters searching for food with a more personal touch. By replacing other street food like sausages and kebab, it also provides a more homemade alternative to that target customer. A desire to introduce the Dude Food trend; homemade meals and microbrewed beer to Norwegian customers. Wanting to provide an alternative to other street food. Expanding the food culture in Norway. Unknown Night life, design, culture, trends, young urban lifestyle. Dude food, hipster, quality, homemade A successful combination of quality food and beer and establishing this trend in Norway. More restaurants, more providers of beer, further exploration of food culture abroad and bringing it back into the restaurant. 3

4 Promises: Current audience: Audience goal: Perception: Desired perception: Distinction from competition: Desired Response; Objective: Quality food and beer for cheap prices. Unknown Young urban professionals, citizens of Bergen, creatives, clients interested in nightlife, design, culture and quality food, beer enthusiasts. Unknown Quality, trendy, inspirational and refreshing Traditional with a modern twist. Approaching it from a street food angle, using microbrewed beer, lower prices. The offer of quality homemade meals and selection of microbrewed beer, for that homemade atmosphere and for the culture it inspires. Invite a wide target audience of young urban individuals between the ages of 18 and 35 interested in culture, food, design, trends and night life. 4

5 Main competitors & their design Spisekroken Location: Bergen Ideals: Good food and wine. Warm and cozy. Change menu often. Food from Norwegian farmers. Believe in local products, rustic food with a twist and good wine. Target: Loyal regulars and happy visitors who happen to come by. Product History & Characteristics: Run by Ingvild S Bøge. Developing new dishes with veal. Cookbook full of small dishes, dinner, finger food and party food named "VEAL".Specialties include gourmet veal and babygoat Their design: Rustic, cozy, warm. Colors: Orange, red, black Logo: Black emblem with white strokes and font. Uses decorative swirls reminiscent of traditional norwegian design. Font is bold, extruded, old-fashioned, communicates tradition and norwegian culture. No symbol besides the graphic elements around the font. Website: Seems slightly outdated, not many design choices apparent there. Colonialen Location: Bergen Ideals: Innovation, traditional, creativity, seasons best produce. Product History & Characteristics: Opened in Focus on serving a uncompromised dining experience. Chefs have excelled with their combination of tradition and creativity based on the best seasonal produce. Innovation based on season's best produce. Reasonable prices, yet not cheap. Offers pre-decided menus. Small locations, but several of them in Bergen. 5

6 Their design: Nordic, simple, wood, minimal, elegant, clean Colors: wood, black, grey, beige, gold Logo: Handwritten script. Communicates the personal touch that the chefs have on the food, connection with the product. Emulates a sense of luxury. Sometimes combined with "Kafe go brasserie" in clean, sans serif (Futura?) Website: Has several high quality photographs. Futura font. Clean, classic, elegant and well maintained. Easily navigated and clean organisation. Naboen Location: Bergen Ideals: Inviting, humour, Gastronomy, craft beer Product History & Characteristics: Traditional and popular restaurant, central Bergen. Chefs that deliver all week. Light meals and full gastronomic experiences. Pub in the basement of the restaurant, focus on Norwegian west coast craft beer. Classic food as well as "the best burgers in town". 6

7 Their Design: Humour, old-fashioned, inviting Logo: Warped text in maroon, illustrated symbol of people cheering with large pints of beer. Gives a sense of old-fashioned, "pub" culture. Seems to be a classic, well-established brand. Font varies in size, making it seem informal and mysterious. Beneath the logo is "Pub & Restaurant" and the added tagline "Restaurant besøk kan forandre liv " Colors: Maroon, dark grey and black. Warm. Website: Uses the same font to present a quirky poem about people's connection to the restaurant. Gives people a connection, making it very inviting to come to, quirky nordic humour. Photos used on the homepage are cropped, extremely small and difficult to understand. Photos of the restaurant are blurry, seemingly informal. Potetkjelleren Location: Bergen Ideals: Quality, history, traditional menu Product History & Characteristics: Potetkjelleren is located in a cosy basement with a rustic style and calming atmosphere. The location itself holds history that dates back to the 1400's. The restaurant seats 100 people. The focus of the restaurant is on experience and relationships, as they are passionate about food and drink. They were awarded best restaurant in Norway 3 years in a row by BT, a Bergen newspaper. They participate in Bergen Wine Festival every year. Their menu includes a la carte meals that vary from seafood to beef, with traditional food and desserts. I imagine that their menu and history attracts an older and more sophisticated target group, or tourists that see the restaurant 7

8 at the top of Bergen's best restaurants on tripadvisor. Their Design: Their design focuses on being rustic and historical, yet reflects quality and a classic design. Logo: Their logo has no illustrative symbol or figure, but a distinguishable script typography that reflects the traditional and historical aspects of the restaurant. The typography is lowercase, with a white colour that is framed by a black oval. Below the typography there is a short tagline stating "Mat & Vin" (Food and wine) Colors: The logo uses only white and black, and there are no other apparent colours being used in their brand design. Website: Their website is clean and modern, with a large black and white photograph of the restaurant being the first thing the visitors see. Below the photograph is a brief description of the restaurant, and three consecutive awards for best restaurant in Bergen. They also use social media to promote their restaurant, such as instagram, making them reach a wider and younger demographic with their product. Pingvinen Location: Bergen Ideals : Nightlife, traditional norwegian food, no cocktails, Bergen. Product history and characteristics: Pingvinen is a combination of a night club and restaurant, with a bar and a variety of traditional norwegian food with fresh produce. It is informal and highly popular amongst those who enjoy the Bergen nightlife. Their menu consists of mostly norwegian traditional food, which attracts older customers, however the bar and its variety of offers appeal to younger people and those interested in night life. It has a wide variety of beer, both microbrewed, imported and norwegian. They differ from other bars by abstaining from cocktails and other such drinks, but offer strong liquor. The bar and the fact that they offer food until 2 AM make this company a strong competitor to Food and Malt. 8

9 Their design: Inconsistent, rustic, dark, quirky Logo :Their logo consists of a symbol of a penguin with a bow tie and typography spelling out the company name. The typography consists of uppercase sans serif with a very high x-height, and lines that frame the name and connect to the centred "V" in the name. The logo is symmetrical and reflects the company's high status, yet the symbol of the penguin reflects its quirkiness. Color: There is no other use of colour in the logo or the company's design besides black and white. The choice of using a penguin could have a connection to one of Bergen's most prominent tourist attractions; the aquarium. Website: The website of Pingvinen does not show the typographic logo, and does not have a clear distinguishable design style. The standard use of fonts and colours make this restaurant seem much less successful than it is. There is no clear direction for the use of navy blue, white and orange in the menu area of the website, and the logo is not the centre of the website. It does have several high quality photographs that display the food of the restaurant. The symbol of a penguin does appear on the homepage of the website. Bryggeriet Location: Bergen Ideals: Slow food, craft beer, germanic menu Product History & Characteristics: This restaurant is located in the third floor at Zachariasbryggen, a collective location for a number of restaurants in Bergen. It produces its own beer; wheat-beer, Stout, IPA and Amber Ale. These beer types are chosen specifically to accompany the traditional germanic menu. It is also used in the food-making process, in dishes such as beer steamed mussels. The restaurant is also focused on the concept of slow-food, as their beer is brewed slowly and their meat dishes take 6 hours to cook. This aspect of the restaurant distinguishes it from others, due to their commitment to slow-food and combining beer and food in great ways. 9

10 Their design: Rustic, naval style, traditional, warm Logo: Their logo consists of a vintage typeface with a drop shadow and white outline stroke. It is followed by a tagline that says "Restauranten på forget" (The Restaurant at Torget). It reflects the traditional and vintage roots of the location and is reminiscent of retro signage that would appear directly painted on buildings. Colors: The restaurant itself is dark brown, wooden and warm, yet the logo does not exceed beyond the colours of black and white. Website: Because the restaurant is part of Zacharias Bygget, they do not have their own website, but rather appear with other restaurants as a subwebsite of Zacharias Brygget website. The website in it's entirety seems aged, unattended and cluttered. There are a range of different fonts that do not compliment each other, cropped images and endless low quality images. Upon selecting the restaurant on the website, it shows a range of images of the brewery but no clear design choices seem to be made in the layout, typography or photography. 10

11 DEFINE ISSUE What defines the target group The target group in this instance is young urban professionals between the ages of 18 and 35 interested in culture, food, design, trends and nightlife. My next step was to determine their values, interests and personalities to determine how the logo could communicate the benefits and values of Food and Malt based on the demographic. The age of the group is between 18-35, meaning that they are young individuals in a period of discovery, experimentation and have a desire to feel young in all aspects of their live. It also means that they use technology and social media, which can be helpful in the marketing approach. The location of these individuals is in Norway, a place with an abundance of history and culture, where individuals are healthy, wealthy and active. More specifically, Bergen city, is a creative community with many students, which also offers several locations and shops that tap into the hipster market. Bergen has a very active nightlife scene, and serves a large population which will mean that if the product succeeds it will gain a lot of recognition and income. The income level of the target group varies from those will little to spend, such as students, and those with slightly more to spend, such as professionals. Their education level ranges from being recent students and interested in exploring and discovering new things, or those with or without higher education who can still be concerned with good quality food. The marital status or occupation of these individuals is of little importance, as it is more their interests and values that are relevant. The personality of the target group is defined in the brief as those interested in culture, food, design, trends and nightlife. From this we can assume that the personality of those individuals is creative, experimental, open and inspired. Their attitudes can be described as open, relaxed and friendly toward others and new things.the values of the target group can be perceived as; quality food, micro brewed beer, friendship, good times, making new discoveries and being open. Their interests are also important. They are interested in creativity, meaning they are concerned with aesthetics that are of-the-moment, innovative and "cool". Another interest is night life, meaning they are concerned with partying, drinking, spending time with friends and meeting new people. As for food as an interest, this means they are concerned with what makes food good, what ingredients are used and the flavour of the food. They are interested in trends, meaning that they value new ideas and have an interest in what other people like and how others perceive them. They want to feel current. We know their lifestyles i nclude nightlife and urban, meaning they spend much of their time outside in the city, allowing them to be exposed to many other restaurants. They are interested in culture, which means they spend time discovering new shows or events. They are also interested in design, meaning that they have a creative lifestyle where design and aesthetics have a significance. We can also assume the behavior of these individuals. They might want to discover new restaurants to share with their friends, or be perceived as cool if they are a customer of a cool place. 11

12 The product will fit into the target s lifestyle because they may want to share the experience with friends, visit the restaurant during a night out or a cultural outing, or discover new trends that will make them feel part of something bigger and current. The most appealing part about the product would be that it not only is a place that will make them feel current and concerned with quality, but that it is a place where they can be inspired and discover new things. Which characteristics should the logo show The brief of this assignment provided the parameters in which the logo should be, including what style expressions to use, the design requirements and the positioning axis of the company. In this section, I will explore these parameters and create a clear frame in which the logo can be made. The logo should show characteristics that encourage the customer to see the most beneficial parts of the company. It should also show how the company is different from the competitors. The brief provided a list of the keywords that answer this; they approach traditional meals with a modern twist and offer them for a reasonable cheap price. It is therefore important that the logo show the combination between traditional and modern, but I do not think the attention should be brought to the fact that the meals are cheap. However, the concept of affordable and reasonable can be implemented in the design. The brief also provided strict guidelines for what the logo requires. First, the logo should be simple and easily recognizable. This means that it will not be necessary with overly decorative elements, however it does mean that the logo should be distinguishable from other logos and make an impression on the customer. This will allow for the logo to be easily recognizable. Other logos that are distinguishable from others are those that use uncommon colors, simplicity, timeless fonts and have the potential to maintain their appeal in the long term. The logo should not be similar in any way to the logos of the company s competitors. Another requirement is that the logo use no more than 2-3 colors, which is also connected to its timelessness and simplicity. Another part of the requirements is optional; the use of a symbol/figure/ornament. If this becomes an option in the idea development process, it is imperative that the symbol provides support for the product and has a clear connection to it, or else its use becomes redundant. Having a decorative figure or ornament should only be used if it helps to communicate the values and benefits of the product. A final guideline from the brief is the style expressions. This includes the design styles of: hipster, letterpress, quality, homemade, professional. The hipster design style is easily recognised, yet gives the designer room to explore creative and innovative styles. From researching various examples, we can establish that hipster logos have emblems and illustrations. The font varies from being handwritten, bold slab serif or simplistic sans serif. 12

13 The letterpress style is easily recognizable, as letterpress printing involves a relief technique that creates a direct impression on a surface. This will involve an actual printing of the logo, however this style can be replicated and mimicked in the shadowing of the logo or if the logo includes an illustration. The homemade style is also easily recognizable, as it often involves using elements that look homemade, such as graphics that look hand painted, handwritten or drawn. The styles that reflect quality and appear professional are often through the use of serif fonts, clean and simple graphics and simplified shapes. Below I have listed a few images that act as examples of these different styles. The design challenge For this section, I will explore how this design can be easily distinguishable and memorable. I will begin by investigating how other logos become successful, and how this can be applied to the development of the Food and Malt logo. The logos I have decided to serve as examples for unique design are shown below. I selected these logos due to their combination of graphic elements such as unique script or logo symbols. The logos above have several things in common. First, they consist of very simple shapes that have become instantly recognizable. They are iconic and reflect the design of their products and the brand ideals of the company. They differ in typography; Chanel, Nike and Adidas do not have completely unique sans serif fonts, where as Coca Cola has a unique script that is heavily graphic. Another common aspect is their lack of color. Coca Cola has three colors that define the brand; red, black and white, whereas the other examples remain white or black on their products. This allows for them to be versatile and applicable in several formats. For adidas, the three lines represent not only their shoe design, but act as instantly recognizable elements of their design. By using simple shapes, typography and logo symbols that connect with their products, they become timeless and relevant and communicate the brand clearly. 13

14 The first and most important part of making this logo unique is to stay away from clichés and avoid using them in the design. This includes using icons that symbolise food or malt, or creating a logo that is too recognizable as hipster. This will also lead to the logo becoming outdated, as the hipster design style is a current trend and might not be in the future. However, I do believe that it is important to identify these clichés in the creative development, so I can know what to avoid and what I can aspire to. A key feature in all examples above of great logo designs is that they are simple and timeless. This also means that any use of design trends should be avoided. In the sketching process, I will also identify those ideas that fall within the category of design trends, so that I can avoid making a logo that becomes outdated and overly decorative. What many of the logos above have in common is also that they are versatile. They function as if they can be applied in many different formats, whether it is on package design, billboards or web. They can appear with or without a logo symbol, or without text at all. Some of the logos above show that the use of a unique script can benefit the uniqueness of the design. For example, the Coca Cola logo uses calligraphy in the typography to emulate Coke being a classic soft drink. It is easily distinguishable and a logo that copies it is instantly recognized. There is an abundance of different font designs in 2016, although the uniqueness of a script could be easiest achieved through using one s own handwriting. 14

15 IDEA DEVELOPMENT AND SKETCHES In this section, I used the Logo Design Workbook method for Exploration and the Lynda.com Designing a logo tutorial by Nigel French to explore different conceptual and formal approaches to the logo design. The first step was to establish a conceptual approach, meaning that the underlying meaning or value of the logo should be established. In the section above, the key characteristics of the logo were summarised, which could be used to create a frame of parameters to guide the design. Below is a list of conceptual approaches with an added explanation of formal approaches I associated with each in the form below. To add words within each section, I researched a number of logos within each style and recorded their common features. Current/Hipster/ Cool Quality Inspiration, discovery and openness Young and urban Style: Letterpress, homemade, retro Shapes: Emblems, Illustrations Colors: Earthy colors, low-saturation colors, beige, pink, blue, brown, dark blue Typography: Serif, script, and sans serif. Bold, simple, uppercase, handwritten Style: Sophisticated, textured, glossy/matte, packaging or logo is unique Shapes: Simple, textures Colors: Beige, white, black, gold Typography: Serif, Simple Style: Colorful, exciting, detailed Shapes: Illustrations, gestalt principles Colors: Colorful Typography: Script, Exciting and simple Style: Transparent, metallic Shapes: Cartoons, illustrations, or very little Colors: No more than one color Typography: Sans serif, Big and bold, simple wording Friendship and relationships Affordable/For Everyone Style: Warm, inviting, closeness Shapes: Duality, connected, balance and symmetry Colors: Brown, orange, red, beige, white Typography: Script, Handwritten Style: Simple, paper Shapes: Geometric, big typeface Colors: white, black, blue Typography: Sans serif, Helvetica 15

16 Moodboards From the keywords above, I created a overall moodboard. Sketches The next step was to develop ideas through sketching and investigate the formal approaches of the design. This is what follows the conceptual approaches in Logo Design Workbook. The sketches below are separated into different variations: Type, type variables, logo symbols, and design trends. I explored different uses of design principles within each type of sketch development. I will briefly explain the development of these sketched ideas, and how they were used for the final logo ideas. 1. (1)Type - Through these quick sketches, I first investigated different typography in regards to size and font. Through this I discovered a key element that could be used in the logo; the ampersand. I decided that if it were to be along the same path as the company name, it should have a lower x-height, allowing for a separation between the words food and malt. The sketches below show the different design styles I sketched. 2. (2+3)Type variables - In these sketches I looked at how I could use the company initials and the variations of the company name layout. Through this I discovered that the company name by itself was somewhat weak, graphically. I further explored this by experimenting with simple shapes, banners and typing along a path. 16

17 3. (4-6) Using company initials - These sketches show how I incorporated graphic elements into the company initials. I was drawn to the use of geometric lines in the uppercase letters, which seemed fitting to the hipster style the brief explains. I also attempted to use different design principles with the company initials, such as the Gestalt principle of Closure and the use of contrast through regular and bold font combined. After exploring different symbols to use in the logo, I tried incorporating them in the letterforms. 4. (7) Variations on Ampersand - Due to the potential the ampersand symbol had, I later explored how it could be used in different ways. These sketches show my attempt to combine the ampersand with different logo symbol. 17

18 5. (8-11) Logo symbols - For the logo symbols, I began with simple iconography and recognizable shapes for beer and food. This led to the fork becoming the main representative to food, and the malt barley or beer bottle for beer. Although I quickly identified these symbols as clichés, I wanted to explore if they could be used in a memorable way. These sketches show my attempts to combine them in memorable ways, some sketches showing how the typography could be combined with them. I then (9) attempted to make more distinguishable and unique combinations of the two symbols, leading me to the ampersand and how it could be combined with the symbols. This is explored in sketch (11-13) Considering design trends - For the final part of this process, I searched for the most popular design trends of 2016 (Found on creativebloq.com) This was suggested in the Designing a logo tutorial on Lynda.com, as there is a danger that logos that are too current or trendy can quickly become outdated. This was 18

19 also an important part to explore, as it was stated in the brief that the logo should be timeless. For each design trend listed on the website, I wrote down key words to describe their function and quickly sketched some ideas for each trend. This will allow me to identify which styles I should avoid or translate to a more timeless style.the trends included: vintage, shaded, monoline, negative space, calligraphy & handlettering, and dramatic typography. Some of these styles functioned in ways that the brief wanted, such as the handlettering giving a homemade quality, or the simplicity or monoline logos. 19

20 The next step was to select the most useful sketches which managed to communicate one or more aspects that the logo was required to have. I selected the sketches based on their simplicity, timelessness and their style in regards to what the brief explained. I then made a series of 21 sketches of fully composed logos that used these ideas. I chose a range of ideas to explore further in Illustrator. It would be easier to see the effect of the designs when they were on the computer and I could explore different typography to go with the design. 20

21 I decided to center the design around the ampersand symbol, as it provided a unique approach to portraying the combination between food and malt. It uses the ampersand and the iconography of food and beer. I wanted the logo to combine not only food and beer, but modern and traditional, through the current trend of monoline and the added use of traditional looking emblem or fonts. If I succeed with this, the logo will also appeal to individuals ranging from young to older. The use of an emblem will also help to communicate quality and the homemade aspect. I was still undecided on the layout of the logo, and the incorporation of the letterpress style, but would further explore this in Illustrator. 21

22 Creative Process: Illustrator 1. Making the ampersand symbol - After photographing and importing photos of the selected sketches, the first step was to create the ampersand symbol. To do this, I used two ellipses, created a 45 degree rectangle to cut through them and used the pathfinder option to create symmetrical cuts through the ellipse strokes. Using the direct selection tool, I deleted unwanted strokes. I then added two 45 degree lines that extended beyond the half ellipses, allowing for the symbols to be placed. I used Lock to grid to create a simple monoline fork end on one side of the lines. For the malt symbol, I made one side of the barley with the pen tool, using the bezier handles to create a curve. This was then duplicated and mirrored to create a balanced shape. This was added to the line and duplicated along the stroke, then duplicated and reflected to mirror perfectly on the other side of the stroke. Throughout the following steps, I would alter the stroke width and fill of the symbol accordingly. 2. Testing different fonts - Now that the logo symbol had been made, I decided to experiment with different fonts that could be used. After some exploring, I decided between two main fonts, Steelfish and Quicksand. 3. Using the fonts to try the selected ideas - I used the chosen fonts to illustrate the main ideas from the sketching process, which included typing along a path, creating new strokes and arranging the font in various ways around the ampersand symbol. I also recreated the fork and malt symbol to create an ellipse frame around the text. 22

23 4. New ideas that arose - After exploring the sketched ideas, I began exploring more freely. I introduced the idea of a square frame, inverted the colors of the logo and tried placing the ampersand symbol within the typography. However, this made the details of the ampersand symbol far too small in comparison to the typography, so I experimented with larger symbols that divided the two words. I also attempted making the ampersand reflect the double O s in Food, but that created an imbalance in the overall logo. 23

24 5. Getting feedback on chosen ideas - I had narrowed down my options to two separate ideas. The first was within the design style of homemade and hipster, whereas the second was more simple and inspired by timeless logos. At this point I decided to share my ideas and receive feedback on what worked best. The feedback I received was that the ampersand symbol indeed worked as it s own logo, but that the second option seemed easier to work with. My main focus was to create a simple logo which was trendy and timeless at the same time, which the feedback had shown was more apparent in the second option. What guided the final design was the simplicity of the logo symbol, the basic sans serif font and the overall balance. By applying what I had understood from examples of unique logos, I kept the shapes and typography simple, adding only detail to the ampersand to allow it to communicate the product characteristics. It s cleanliness and modern typography would also help it communicate the quality of the product. The use of a simple circular shape makes the whole logo balanced and guides the eye toward the center to the logo symbol. The ampersand can act as its own symbol to reflect the brand, and be used as a stamp or a logo for tighter formats. The added ellipse stroke around the ampersand makes this more apparent, and also reflects the use of emblems in the hipster design style. My only concern with this logo is the illustration on the ampersand, which might not be visible in smaller formats. To solve this, I created thinner strokes on the logo symbol. 24

25 THE DESIGN MANUAL The final step of this project was to create a design manual. I used a number of examples and researched other manuals and included answers and explanations to the following points in the final manual: Title page Contents page What is this manual Brand values/about Statement for logo Primary Brand elements Mark and logotype Colors Typography Graphic components (Shapes and illustrations) Framing, scale, margins, layout and grid Do's and Don'ts Examples of uses I proceeded by creating a general overview of the layout of the design manual: The design manual acts as a set of guidelines for other users of the logo. The layout, design and color of the manual itself reflects the design choices explained within it. The reason for this is to communicate the brand consistently and intensely and make it as obvious as possible. The design manual is a separate file from this report, and explains all final design choices for the logo. 25

26 SOURCES Websites: html Tutorials: Nigel French, Designing a Logo, 2008, available at Lynda.com Books: Sean Adams, LOGO Design Workbook, 2006, Rockport Publishers, United States Links to Learning Assignments: Week 4-6 Week Brand Identity - Learning Activity Week 6: Typography - Learning Activity 1 g-meaning/ 26