Brand Corporate Identity - Final Project

Brand Corporate Identity - Final Project

02/06/20 - 14/07/20 (Week 08 - Week 15)

Sia Man Sheng

0333877

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LECTURE NOTES

Lecture 06: Brand Guidelines/ Brand Manual/ Brand Style Guide

19/05/20 - week 06

Lecture Slide 6: Brand guidelines/ Brand Manual/ Brand style guide

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INSTRUCTIONS

Week 08

02/06/20
This week still in the idea generation stage, I am looking for the layout reference for the brand guide and also finalising types of applications, which has been discussed earlier in project 2 before.

Week 09

09/06/20
According to my brand identity, I have to create illustration for it and Ms Low advice me to not go for popular style of illustration, therefore I referred to a not so popular advertisement and develop my illustration from there. From there, I created design for a business card and a brand guide layout.

Week 10

16/06/20

This week work done is mostly on the applications site, I have created design and mock-up for business card, wooden plate, t-shirt, apron and mural.

Fig. 1: Business card (left) & wooden plate (right)

Fig. 2: White t-shirt front (left) & back (right)

Fig. 3: Black t-shirt front (left) & back (right)

Fig. 4: Appron attempt 1 (left) & apron attempt 2 (right)

Fig. 5: Apron attempt 3 (left) & mural first attempt (right)

Week 11

23/06/20
This week I mostly spent my time on creating the packaging as well as the illustration for it. Besides, I have made some adjustment to my brand guide layout.

Fig. 6: Fruit jam packaging

Fig. 7: Social media post mock-up

Fig. 8: Social media post design (Instagram story)

Fig. 9: Thumbnail for the brand guide layout (First attempt)

Week 12

30/06/20
Based on Ms Low advice, I created a character for my brand this week, and also changed my mural mock-up from indoor to outdoor as to fit my brand atmosphere. Besides, I have also continued on my progression on the brand guide.

Fig. 10: Character illustration

Fig. 11: Mural mock-up (2nd attempt)

Fig. 12: Brand guide (2nd attempt)

Week 13
07/07/20
After all the applications have done by last week, this week only focusing to complete my brand guide. As I felt the illustration might work better in a landscape layout, and most of my content was designed required facing page work together. Therefore, I redesigned the brand guide layout and work in a landscape format.

Fig. 13: Brand guide (3rd attempt)

Fig. 14: Brand guide (3rd attempt)

Fig. 15: Brand guide (3rd attempt)

Fig. 16: Brand guide (3rd attempt)

Week 14

14/07/20
This week I have completed the application section of the brand guide, what I only left is the illustration section. 

Fig. 17: Brand guide (4th attempt)

Fig. 18: Brand guide (4th attempt)

Fig. 19: Brand guide (4th attempt)

Fig. 20: Brand guide (4th attempt)

Moreover, most of my focus was on the animated logo. My intension of creating the animated logo was to showcase the feeling of a farm, so I have some line and circle elements included in the logo to give it the feeling of wind passing by. Also, in order to add in detail to make it more dynamic, I have decided to animate the paddy as well, both in a consistent movement or random movement.

Fig. 21: Animated logo (1st attempt) - Consistent movement of leaves

Fig. 22: Animated logo (2nd attempt) - inconsistent movement of leaves

Fig. 23: Animated logo (3rd attempt) - longer line length

Final Outcome

Fig 24: Brand Guide (pdf)

Fig 25: Brand Guide (pdf  with guidelines)

Fig 26: Brand Guide (thumbnail)

Fig 27: Brand Guide (thumbnail)

Fig 28: Brand Guide (thumbnail)

Fig 29: Brand Guide (thumbnail)

Fig 30: Brand guide (mock-up)

Fig 31: Brand guide (mock-up)

Fig 32: Brand guide (mock-up)

Fig 33: Brand guide (mock-up)

Fig 34: Brand guide (mock-up)

Fig 35: Brand guide (mock-up)

Fig 36: Application mock-up(apron)

Fig 37: Application mock-up(fruit jam packaging)

Fig 38: Application mock-up(mural art)

Fig 39: Application mock-up(business card)

Fig 40: Application mock-up(business card)

Fig 41: Application mock-up(wooden plate)

Fig 42: Application mock-up(white t-shirt front)

Fig 43: Application mock-up(white t-shirt back)

Fig 44: Application mock-up(black t-shirt front)

Fig 45: Application mock-up(black t-shirt back)

Fig 46: Application mock-up(social media post)

Fig 47: Socia media post (Instagram story)

Fig 48: Animated logo (GIF)

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FEEDBACK

Week 8: 

02/06/20

Individual Feedback:

I should come out with page pagination, with a thumbnail of each page and label the content. Throughout my presentation, it is good that I have my take away from the reference but no just collecting beautiful images. For the illustration, I should focus on local elements such as tropical fruits.

The colour of the logo may need to relook at it after illustration is done. Therefore, what I need to focus on is my illustration to be done. The name card is ok, with 1 side full of illustration and the other side is quiet.

Week 9:

09/06/20

Individual Feedback:

The logo on the name card, white colour seems not contrasting with the background, background too noisy. Maybe no need the grass at the back of the logo, make a clean area to let logo to sit on it. Maybe can try put at the top right corner. The content at the back are too small, the logo also looks good in a bigger size. Please work in the actual size so you can know the actual condition.

For layout, use actual text, not the blind text, the layout looks ok, but need to relook at the colour later. Fix the content using tab. Show 50% of collateral next week.

Week 10:

16/06/20

Individual Feedback:

For the name card, good to have the same alignment at the front and back but the tagline should sit on the same baseline as the text beside it. Break the information into three parts, which leave the name and tagline itself sit on the top.

For the t-shirt, it looks like a comic, try if I can add a character to it then become much more interesting. Once I have the character in a t-shirt, then I should try it on other collateral as well.FOr packaging, the shape on the front can be improved, the lock-up for the logo could be more contrasting. Or maybe move the informative text and the logo at the bag, here can apply the blind text. Consider making a tote bag.

Week 11

23/06/20

Individual Feedback: 

Ms Low said that she is fine with the logo placement on the business card. The mock-up image fo cloth looking real but I need a flat image to insert into the brand guide as well. For the mural, it is more suitable to use an outdoor mock-up as I need to show the environment is surrounded by nature. When putting mural into the brand guide, please include silhouette of human to indicate its height.

For the social media post, I have two versions, one with blur effect and one without. Ms Low said that without blur effect is better as blur effect make it looks like quality is bad. The storyboard for the logo animation seems fine, but need to put more effort while developing scene 6 to scene 7. The transition has to be smooth enough and the position of the logo should be able to match in 2 scenes.

Week 12

30/06/20

Individual Feedback: 

I don't need to include author or designer info in the content page, but If I want, I can look into colophon done on other books, it can be included either in the early page or the last page. And remove the logo and the word "page" label on heading. The only number to indicate the page number is enough to communicate. For the images, it is good if I could crop them all into organic shapes to match the brand identity. And for the image selection, try to choose an image that can communicate more elements in a single image, and must close to local lives.

Week 13
07/07/20

Individual Feedback: 

Everything seems fine but the illustration part I haven't complete. Here would be the advice from Ms.Low: I can talk on the inspiration or meaning of designing these illustrations. Also, I can indicate what effect or simplify steps I applied to the illustrations. It is the visual representation that trying to speak highlight the design decisions.

Week 14

14/07/20

Individual Feedback: 

For the animated logo, the inconsistent movement of the leave looks more dynamic, then go for this one. Also, it seems to be confusing in the beginning, it takes time to understand what are you trying to deliver until the paddy come out, so what I should do is to show two leaves come out from the beginning like the sprout growing.

For the colour section in the brand guide, remove the additional grey or add it under secondary colour, and also it is good to have so many labelling dimension on the applications, but it seems to have too much restriction. Maybe only the most important one would be great.

Week 15

21/07/20

Individual Feedback: 

Please add the mock-up image for band guide into the mock-up submission as well. For the vision and mission page, Ms Low has made some changes on my copyrighting format to make overall looks consistent.

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REFLECTION

Experience

To be very honest, I feel quite proud of myself for managing to complete this project. It's not so much the tough workload, but rather the lengthy duration of this project that really got to me. I guess I'm just not used to working on the same project for such a long time. Overall, I really enjoyed this project because it helped me understand and appreciate the amount of work that goes into branding.

Observation
My time management skills improved a lot. During these two months, I noticed that my workload didn't feel as heavy compared to my other classmates because I figured out how to organize and balance all my other assignments systematically. Besides that, I also observed that I became much more sensitive to small details than I was before.

Findings
When it comes to creating a strong brand identity, consistency is key. No matter how well designed a logo is, if the overall visual elements do not come together to create a cohesive look and feel, the brand identity will be lost. I also found that keeping an organized portfolio of past mistakes really helped in deciding what works and what doesn't.

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FURTHER READING

Why Branding Is Important in Marketing by Laura Lake
https://www.thebalancesmb.com/why-is-branding-important-when-it-comes-to-your-marketing-2294845

In this article, the contents include what a brand should do, branding and understand your customer, the importance of branding and the 3 key questions, beyond loyal customers and also a basic checklist to evaluate your brand.

What Should a Brand Do?
Branding is about getting your prospects to see you as the sole provider of a solution to their problem or need. It is not just about getting your target market to pick you over your competition. A good brand will be able to deliver a message clearly, confirm the brand's credibility, emotionally connect target prospects with product/service, motivate the buyer to purchase and create user loyalty.

Branding and Understanding Your Customer
It is important to understand your consumer's needs and wants in order to succeed in branding. This can be achieved by integrating brand strategies throughout the brand at each point of public contact. When consumers start to identify with you and your brand, it will live in the hearts and minds of consumers and will connect on an emotional level.

The Importance of Branding and the 3 Key Questions
Your brand is a promise to your consumer. Is it important to spend time doing research, defining and building up the brand?

1. Did the product/service perform as expected?
2. Was the quality as good as promised? or better?
3. Was the entire customer experience positive?

Beyond Loyal Customers
Branding creates loyal employees and not just loyal customers. A quality brand gives people something to believe in and stand behind.

Basic Checklist to Evaluate Your Brand
1. Does the brand relate to the target audience?
2. Does the brand share the uniqueness of what I am offering?
3. Does the brand reflect the promise made?
4. Does the brand reflect values to be represented to customers?