Comprehensive Brand Identity

Posted on March 1, 2016 by Jess Claxton

I found an article that looks at the 8 Essential Elements to a Comprehensive Brand Identity. I found this to be fairly helpful when looking at making my own logo and brand identity for High Seas Ink. Below are the 8 points that they made.

1. Logo or wordmark A logo is the graphic symbol, whereas a wordmark or logotype is just the name of the company set out in a particular, fixed way

2. Different logo “lockups” Although the logo needs to look consistent, it should have variations based on placement and fit

3. Key colours Key colours are used to define the company. Often two are used but some can more complex

4. Additional colour palette options Other colours can be used, that complement the original logo, which bring the brand identity together

5. Corporate typefaces Only a few fonts should be used in one brand identity and should be available on a computer

6. Standard typographic treatments The way things are written or laid out should be similar across platforms

7. Consistent style for images All imagery should have a consistent look and feel

8. Full library of graphic elements For example background textures, line style treatment or use of white space

Logos and Branding

Posted on March 1, 2016 by Jess Claxton

A logo is a visual representation of a company and its products via the use of a symbol, graphic or emblem. They should be easily recognizable by the consumers and stand out from its market competitors.

An effective logo can include the visual image of the company as well as the name of the company, although if the company is well known it can be used without it’s company name, for example the Nike logo.

International companies may just use the graphic to represent their company and products to avoid the issue of translation. Coca-Cola is a company that is recognizable when written in different languages and alphabets due to the font, colour and the ribbon design.

Semiotics is also important when creating a logo and brand identity. Semiotics is the study of signs and signifiers – the study of meaning. For example, everybody knows that a red light means stop and green go, which is something that we have all learnt. It is important to think about this when creating a logo as a lot can be read into the meaning behind the logo created for a company.

Rebranding

Many companies choose to rebrand, although this can be difficult as many people come to recognize a logo and associate it with a certain company and changing this can have an effect on the company. However, many companies and brands choose to rebrand due to a change in consumers, a change in ownership or direction, drop in stock, merging with another company or to get rid of a bad image. Many large companies have successfully rebranded for various reasons, for example Google and BP.

Initial Ideas

Posted on March 1, 2016 by Jess Claxton

My first ideas wanted to include a nautical symbol that is easily recognized but drawn in a tattoo-styled way. I didn’t want to use an anchor as I felt that this was too obvious for a nautical themed tattoo studio. I looked at nautical tattoos, which can be seen below:

I wanted my logo to look as though it could also be a tattoo – this could show to the customers the quality of the type of work that the studio does. The last photo above inspired me to use a ships wheel and a banner across which would say the name of the company. Below is my original sketch of my first logo:

I then started to transfer this onto the computer by drawing it out on to Illustrator. This was my original drawing in the Adobe program:

This part was the easiest by far – although it wasn’t easy. I made it by creating shapes and lines and then warping them using the tools available in Illustrator. I created a lot of guide lines and grids to make sure the wheel was symmetrical. I am not happy with the inside of the wheel but the banner will cover most of this up and so should not be a problem.

The next stage was to create the banner that goes across the wheel. I made this on one layer and overlayed the text on top of that. I then had to warp the text to fit on the banner and look as though it was printed on it. This was difficult, as I had found on the previous project when I had tried to warp the grid on the space project. This time I used the perspective warp tool available on Photoshop. However, I found it very difficult to get this right and make it look as though it is actually written on the banner. Below is how far I got with it.

When I tried to perspective warp it the top of the ‘s’ and ‘ink’ would get cut off which I did not know how to fix. However, I wasn’t as happy with the digital version of the logo as I was with my original sketch.