Tuesday 11th March -
Today Gabrielle and I were finally able to get together to discuss the branding she wants doing for her latest brief. She explained to me that she is designing a clothes range based around the theme of tennis and 1920's fashion. At this stage she doesn't really have any concrete ideas of what she would like the end result to look like, but would just like me to experiment with some ideas. She isn't sure about a name either so I have asked whether she would be able to think of some ideas for me to be able to progress a little bit further.
I am going to use this post to document all of my development so that it is all in one place and easy to follow. I think this will help me to review past ideas and develop them.
I decided to note down all of the key bits of information on a piece of paper and have it facing me on the wall so that I could constantly refer back to it. Until I have a name to work with I will just have to wait.
Today Gabrielle contacted me and told me that she had come up with a name 'nineteen fourty'. She also mentioned how she liked it in lowercase and when I asked for a colour scheme she said white, navy and fuschia. So now that I have the key information that I needed I will be able to make some solid progression.
I have started by drawing out some of my initial ideas. Obviously none of them are completely accurate when drawn out by hand but I found that this helped me to visualise what it could look like when created digitally. In the initial conversation I had with Gabrielle she mentioned that she wanted to incorporate the infinity symbol somehow to imply that her clothes range is everlasting and will never become dated.
I tried to make this work but I think I may struggle to develop this idea, as it might look a bit out of place. I quite like the simple ideas of having it written in a straight line with perhaps something minor that stands out, such as a full stop in a different colour.
I now feel ready to experiment on the computer to see what I can come up with. I decided to type the logo out in several ways, altering the use of colour, the weight, incorporating the infinity symbol and mixing it up a bit, using the number 40 instead of it all being in lowercase text. I did this because I felt as though all of the other ideas looked a bit too generic and not very memorable.
I then developed this idea further and experimented with the use of colour. Knowing that Gabrielle was quite interested and keen to have the symbol somewhere in her logo design, I thought I should experiment further with this. I am quite pleased with the outcome of these ideas and think they are much more successful than some of the previous ideas I had. Hopefully when she reviews them she will instantly have a preferred choice.
Tuesday 18th March -
Today I had another meeting with Gabrielle. I took all of my ideas with me printed out so that she could have a look at them and then get back to me with some feedback. When I showed them to her she had a very positive initial reaction and instantly liked the one I had developed with 'nineteen 40' used. I found this very interesting considering she was sure that she liked all lowercase initially. This taught me that it is sometimes worth taking an idea that extra bit further, as the client may not have originally considered it.
Another thing I had realised is that when Gabrielle informed me that she wanted to go with 'nineteen fourty' for her brand, the word 'fourty' was spelt incorrectly. However, I thought this might have been so that she could emphasise the word, as a lot of the time logos aren't always accurate.
Friday 21st March -
Today I briefly met up with Gabrielle again to discuss further feedback. She had spoken to her tutor about some of my ideas so far and her tutor had drawn out some ideas. She also mentioned to Gabrielle about the spelling of 'fourty' and corrected her to spell 'forty' instead. It turned out that she hadn't even realised that she had spelt it wrong. I was just pleased that it hadn't been me that had made the mistake, otherwise I would have felt really guilty and unprofessional.
Whilst I was discussing the ideas with her, she went on DaFont and printed out some font choice ideas for me as she had decided that she wanted to try and see what a script font would look like. I wasn't sure whether this idea had come from something her tutor had said or whether she just wanted a wider range to choose from. I then asked if there were any in particular that she wanted me to experiment with, and so I tried to use them to explore further possibilities.
Below are some of the ideas I came up with. The first example shown below, has been created using one of Gabrielle's favourite choices from one of the print outs she had given me. I personally found this font quite difficult to work with, as it was very limited and I struggled to design a wide variety of designs to choose from. I think out of these four ideas, the top one works the best as it looks balanced. I don't think the digits work well in this font at all.
I then experimented further with another font which created quite a friendly feel I thought. I quite like how it has a 'sketchy' aesthetic and isn't perfect. I seem to think that Gabrielle will quite like this idea and perhaps the previous one as they were the ones she seemed most enthusiastic about the other day.
The font I used in this case looks a lot more immature and not as suited to the subject. I am not sure this is suitable at all, but it is another option for me to present to Gabrielle when I next see her.
I had used this font in first year for one of my projects, with the target audience being students. The clothes brand is going to be aimed at the same age range and so I thought it might work, however once I had tried it, I realised that it wasn't as well suited as I had imagined.
Wednesday 26th March -
Today I managed to meet up with Gabrielle and discuss further ideas. I was able to present her with quite a wide array of ideas and she instantly loved the first two which I had thought she would. However, when she realised that the logo needs to be easily applicable and suitable for swing tags, the front of garments, as well as promotional material and clothes labels, it turned out that the most suitable design was the one I had created earlier on in my development. I am really pleased that Gabrielle has chosen to use this logo as I think it has a sporty feel to it and will work well across a variety of materials.
Evaluation
When I met Gabrielle earlier this year and helped her model for a photoshoot, I had asked her then whether we could work together/ I could do some branding for her later on in the year. So when she approached me about this brief I was extremely enthusiastic and excited because I love fashion design as well as fashion editorial, and it has always been one of my keen interests outside of graphic design.
I have therefore thoroughly enjoyed working with Gabrielle, and I have enjoyed being able to work with someone somewhere else in the college, as it has been a healthy change of scenery and atmosphere to see how another course operates and what the expectations are. Now that I have made this contact I am hoping we will be able to work together in the future and I hope that I am still able to design her personal branding or at least help her with it for her end of year exhibition.
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