Aspect of branding

An aspect of branding that stood out to me was word marks and logos as I felt that this was the beginning of my brand coming together with the visualisation of my brand. To me they are what make up a brand, they have personality and are the visual identity of the brand. A logo is a symbol or other small design adopted by an organization to identify its products, uniform, vehicles, etc. When a word mark is a freestanding word or words. It may be a company name or an arconym.

They are such a large part of the visual identity of the customer, that they create brand recognition. The most effective word marks are simple and timeless, they have to be easy to understand and unique. When creating word marks I found it very easy to overcomplicate them which makes them less effective and difficult for people to understand. I found that it's best to really consider what the word is already providing to create really effective word marks, less is more I found when creating wordmarks. That doesn't mean that they are boring as the anatomy of text manipulated often creates and really fun and playful result. A fun example of this is the Vans logo that the first version created in 1966 by Mark Van Doren, with just an extended terminal it has created this iconic and recognisable word mark that one simple extension has changed its tone completely.

Logos on the other hand can be busy and exciting whilst still being really effective. They have to represent your brand just like your word mark but they can easily create a personality for your brand without trying very hard. This can really be seen in the character logo or even emblems they are speaking to the customer showing the brand being distinct and recognisable. They can also be effective with a more simple approach with just an abstract mark, they can still show connectedness with this a great example of this is Google Drive created by Strohl INC meant to represent syncing, sharing, and accessibility. It is very abstract and simple which makes it really effective with the 3 values as the 3 points of the triangle and I love the shadow effect on it as well to add another layer of dimensions.

What both logo and wordmarks should do is explain the brand as it represents the tone and values of the brand. Everything in them must tell the story of the brand, and there are so many different aspects that make them up like the colour and the effects colours have on people's feelings about the brand. Everything in them must be very carefully considered as they are the face of the brand and can easily be lost in all the logos and wordmarks that exist in the world. They also can be used together to reinforce the brand more as if they are both identifiable together than if they were separated for advertising they will still be just effectively separate.

https://fabrikbrands.com/vans-logo-history-meaning-and-evolution/

https://strohlsf.com/googledrive/

Designing brand Identity fifth edition by Alina Wheeler page 56.

Self reflection from this semester

This semester felt a lot longer, and I have learnt a lot, I enjoyed and disliked the longer set tasks. I felt that it gave me a great chance to really create a brand and all the aspects that are involved in it, to really take my time and consider all areas of it. Some of the lectures that really stood out to me were wordmarks as I was able to play with my bank name and get really good feedback that allowed me to take it a lot further to create a word mark that I think really created a visual identity. Another lecture that really helped me was the touchpoint in week 6 which allowed me to really think about what my brand was, the aim and its values as I think I started to get lost in the visual identity and not the target of my brand. I also found that I really responded to the way this class was taught and that I fully understood how I should be building my brand. One other time I enjoyed this class was when we were given small tasks in class that were effective it taught us the process and thoughts behind choices before we would apply it to our own brands.

The areas that I struggled with were at times I felt that I was a bit lost when creating my brand, and that I didn't know where I was heading with my brand. I found it hard to come up with an idea that I felt was achieving something and not just creating another bank to be forgotten about, I could create the name, logo, word mark and colour but struggled when It was what made my bank different. I found It also hard to show my idea on the app and represent what it is trying to achieve. Another area I struggled with was the research with the amount that was required especially continuously as I found that I would just move on to the next area without making sure I fully researched that subject. While I thought the time given to us to do all aspects was good at times I still felt rushed at times and example is that if I had a bit more time I felt like I could have explored typography more with maybe a second font for my app design but felt rushed into building the app as quickly as possible to get feedback.

This semester I feel like I have learnt a lot about brand and how to approach projects and that I will definitely apply what I have learnt to future projects. I am looking forward to next semester to see my progress and to spending time doing independent projects to test myself so I can improve and learn.