Background
Sgt. Lee Tomas, Chief of the RAF’s air staff campaign set out to create striking visuals that broke conformity of the old and invigorated the new to build a Next Generation Air Force. The purpose of this was to create designs that brought a new lease of life to the RAF and encourage recruitment. Lee’s desire was therefore translated through Project Lateral to refresh the organisation and engage with new audiences, whilst maintaining the RAF’s values. Lee reached out to the department to help shape this campaign and craft an image that was precise and professional, looking to eradicate pointless programmes and the overused conservative style.

The brief
For this project there was a set of multiple deliverables to produce, this therefore determined that a mini brief for each deliverable was required. The core deliverables and respective briefs are as followed:

• Astra-space rocket launch patch

To create a badge to be used on the rocket launch in 2021 and combine the Astra logo and colour palette with client supplied reference image. This will create one design which will be used at the Astra Space Rocket Launch.

Content: Text: Astra + Space Rocket + Tagline + Stars + Saturn

• Astra illustrations for the 2040 comic

To digitise 3 comic illustrations based off the client’s provided sketches that matches the house style of the client and client provided colour scheme.

• AviatoRAF logo

To create a logo to represent the new AviatoRAF programme and rebrand the RAF ‘Airman’ to the RAF ‘Aviator’. Use client provided sketches for reference or inspiration, incorporating the tagline ‘fresh af’ into the logo.

Secondary deliverables were also proposed; however, this was subject to time and success of the primary deliverables. Each deliverable was a stark different style to previous graphic material produced by the RAF, therefore designs had to be carefully crafted and considered.

Within our brief we established our roles and responsibility as a team and as individuals, also creating a service level agreement to work with to ensure the project ran smoothly.

Research
Most research was collected through our first online meeting with the client. From this, we found that the RAF were trying to rebrand their image to appeal to a younger audience. The RAF is the UKs aerial warfare force, supporting the objectives of the British Ministry of Defence. The new concept for ‘RAF ASTRA’, is to create a fresh new image, to replace the RAFs overused conservative style. The attitude of the RAF members is that of never losing, even in failure you can learn. We will therefore try and communicate this through the new visual design. The audience for the RAF ASTRA ranges from 16 to 60. This means that the visual designs that we create for this campaign, must be fun enough to appeal to a younger, new audience, while also being accepted by older existing members of the RAF.

Design process and deliverables
As a team we began ideation by sketching down ideas, themes and potential routes for the deliverables to meet their mini briefs. In turn this process acted as an action of filtration, whereby we eliminated unnecessary components or ideas and started to create a strong concept for each deliverable.

1. Patch
   The first of our final deliverables was the RAF ASTRA space rocket patch. The client provided us with two reference images, one of which he wanted us to reciprocate the style of. The other image was an RAF design, which he wanted us to use the colour scheme from, strengthening the connection between the patch and the brand. The badge was going to be used for the 2021 space rocket launch, hosted by RAF ASTRA, and would need to appeal to both older, existing members and a younger audience. The use of soft illustration for the smoke and stars, within the round badge, makes it fun and easy on the eye. Similarly, the strokes on the ring of the planet gives a sense of movement to the badge, adding to the element of fun.The use of colour was in-line with the RAF and the Union Jack, creating a synonymous link for the user to associate with the organisation. The use of sans serif typography provides clarity and legibility. Both form and type were of consideration for this deliverable as it needed to be round with clear hierarchy as it would be stuck on a uniform. The design therefore needed to be minimalist in order to not clash with the uniform.After presenting our ideas to our project supervisor, we were advised to show the client what we had produced. The client expressed their gratitude and confirmed that they were pleased with the design. We suggested that we could continue to make adjustments, however, the client was eager to use the final logo patch we had created and suggested we move onto the next deliverable.

 

 

 

2. Comic Illustrations
   The second of our deliverables included producing a series of comic illustrations. Being asked to produce three illustrations, and there being three of us, we each illustrated a comic strip, to share the workload. The client provided us with their concept sketches, which we took into illustrator. Colour scheme was also chosen by the client, in which he provided an existing comic illustration for us to reference. We received continued feedback from our peers and supervisor throughout the design process, suggesting areas to improve. It was made clear by our supervisor that we needed to maintain consistency in our style of illustration. Subsequently, we made sure to deploy the same illustration style and balance the colour scheme effectively between the group.After acting upon our feedback and finalising our designs, the client made it clear that they were pleased with what we had produced and asked that we sent them the designs in the suitable format. The overall outcome was three individual comic style illustrations for the client to use in attracting a younger audience
   to the RAF.

 

 

3. Aviator Logo
   The last of our deliverables involved designing a logo for the RAF’s brand, Aviator AF. The client sent us a rough hand-drawn sketch of what the design might look like and the components they would want us to include. We began the design process by sketching out different designs, taking inspiration from the client provided assets.

Upon suggestions from the client, we also implemented our own preferences and style into the designs, attempting to create a fresh new brand as the client had suggested. Within these sketches, we focused on a typographic logo to enforce the ‘Aviator’ name. We also explored the use of the target icon, which was important for maintaining the brand identity.

Upon feedback from our project supervisor, it was suggested we take the designs digital in order to fully explore the use of colour and scale at different sizes. Digital illustrations allowed us to fully engage with the colour palette we had been provided with and further enforce the RAF aesthetic. This helped us to make informed decisions on which designs were most effective and choose which to show the client. We selected our most favourable designs in order to receive feedback from our supervisor before showing the client.

Subsequent to this meeting, we collated the best designs ready to show the client. We settled on 3 designs, taking inspiration from the content they provided and maintaining the classic RAF colour scheme. We then received feedback from the client, in which it was confirmed that they were happy with the designs and agreed to select their favourite.

Reflection
The nature of this project was different to how we expected, since we were required to work as the client’s design team. Subsequently, there was a variety of different deliverables that the client expected us to complete throughout the project. The flexibility of these deliverables meant that we were able to apply our skills to a range of different design work. However, it was often frustrating to learn that many of our designs were no longer needed or going to be used and therefore put a halt to the progress of current work. Furthermore, we were often sent a range of deliverables at a single time which became quite overwhelming when balancing each of the tasks. The most difficult part of this job was communicating with the client. We took value in learning what it would be like to communicate with a client in a working environment, however, we found that the client would take a long time to respond to our emails and often not respond at all. It was difficult to keep track of deliverables since the clients preferred method of contact was via mobile, which was often at non-working hours. Despite this, we gained value from experiencing what it would be like to work in a demanding working environment.

Ourselves and the client were pleased with the outcomes we produced; however, we feel that with greater organisation and communication between ourselves and the client, we could have produced a greater sample of work. Despite this, working as a design team was a unique experience and we are proud to have worked with the RAF and help contribute towards their branding.

 

 

 

Background

The IC, abbreviated as the ‘International Collective’, are a company who specialise in internationalisation within the education sector globally. Founded by clients Sirin Myles and Charlene Allen, The IC, aim to create a community for individuals to share, learn, collaborate and support, to help each other grow within the field of internationalisation in the education sector. A way in which the company helps individuals working within this sector, take the next step within their career, is through the use of their online learning platform and training programmes, which provide individuals with workshops, mentoring and coaching.

With the clients wanting to progress further with the company, the development and design of a distinct brand, to represent The IC, became a priority. The clients therefore approached the Real Jobs scheme, at the beginning of February 2020, at which point I decided to take on this branding project after the opportunity was made available.

 

Restating the brief

To kick-start the job and begin thinking about what the visual identity for the company may entail, an initial meeting was held with both clients Sirin and Charlene in the typography building, to discuss the initial job briefing in further detail. The initial meeting was a very positive one, with my understanding of the field of internationalisation within the education sector, being strengthened. Prior to the meeting, my understanding about the sector the company sat in, was fairly confused and something which did require some time to get to grips with. However, through talking with the clients in depth about the company and what they do and what services they provide, my understanding of the sector improved, which was crucial because I wanted to feel comfortable and well informed of the field that I would be designing for. Following a very positive meeting with the clients, discussing the initial brief for the project, it was understood what deliverables were expected from this job, which are listed as follows:

• Visual Identity: Name and Slogan for the company, a logo (which can represent the companies three sectors: The IC Academy, executive and community and a set of brand guidelines
• Business cards
• Powerpoint, Word report and letterhead template designs
• Social media templates for Linkedin, Facebook and Instagram
• Iconography for the online teaching platform

Whilst a list of the initial deliverables was extensive, the job initially had a very quick turnaround, with the vast majority of the deliverables expected to be delivered within the space of the first month, highlighting the challenge that I was faced with.

 

Getting the job started

With an initial quick turnaround, research commenced shortly after a restated brief had been agreed and signed off by the clients after the initial meeting. A particularly useful amount of research, evolved from conversations with the clients in the initial meeting, where the clients were able to describe and talk about some of the competitors within their field such as Buila, Advance HE, Universities UK, EAIE, Nafsa and AEIA. Understanding who the company’s competitors were, was incredibly useful to know, as it enabled me to conduct further research into The IC’s competitors and begin to build moodboards analysing the visual design trends amongst these competitors and what common themes could be analysed. Many of the companies as showcased below, appeared to have similar styles of logo, with many logos in particular seeming to incorporate the globe frequently because of the close connotations to globalisation. Other companies’ identities on the other hand, appeared outdated such as NAFSA. With many of the identities within this sector looking relatively similar after surveying an array of logos within this field, it was evident that there was a gap in the market for The IC, to enter with a fresh identity that would give the company an edge over its competitors, with the clients highlighting that the brand needed convey a sense of vibrance, in order to communicate effectively with its audience.

 

Further to this, a series of mindmaps and brainstorms were then drawn out, exploring key values which could be used to help suitably represent the identity for The IC. Some of the values brainstormed included values such as community, development, sustainability, progression, warmth, global, prestigious, contemporary, learning, connectivity and interlinking. Exploring values such as these was useful, because it helped to highlight potential routes the design for The IC’s identity could take.

 

Initial sketches

Having analysed the market and existing companies brand identities, initial logo sketches built off some of the values which were brainstormed, focusing on concepts such as education, globalisation, interlinking designs and progression. Sketching these ideas based off core values, was a good starting point in the logo design process. From here, the designs were then digitised with the initial turnaround for the delivery of the logos a fairly swift one.

 

 

 

 

Through showing the clients these digitised designs, the clients highlighted a preference towards the use of a san-serif typeface over a serif typeface. Through these initial designs, the clients did however express concerns towards using logos that were enclosed within a square as they felt it gave off the impression of being ‘boxed in’. Some of the initial logo concepts which used the concept of interlinking were appreciated by the clients because of the links to the theme of community. The clients however, were quick to disregard initial ideas which used the graduation hat, the use of stairs to indicate progression as they saw these as designs which were fairly common.

 

Developing logo concepts

With a critical eye looking back on the first round of digital iterations, many of the designs fell short in terms of being unique and as the clients put it, ‘vibrant’. Many of the initial designs had a conservative feel to them, but through a second iteration of logo design concepts, a better attempt was made at producing a series of more interesting design concepts for The IC, highlighted through concepts which explored the use of an arrow, and the interlinking of an I and C together. From this set, there were two designs in particular which caught the eye of the clients. The first concept integrated both the dot of the ‘I’ and the ‘c’ together to form an icon which began to actually look like a person, which could be a good way of trying to symbolise the theme of community, whilst the logo as well had been split into three sections which had the potential to represent the three different sectors to the company as well. The second iteration of logo design from this round of designs, produced another concept which was taken forward into further refinement whereby the actual shape of the letter C, was divided into three sections. Once again, the clients had a strong preference to a design such as this, with the 3 intersections of C having the capability to represent the companies three sectors: The Academy, Executive and Community.

Further iteration of these two logo concepts progressed over an extended period of time. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March, the project deliverables and designs for the logos, were pushed back. The clients however, were interested in seeing how the design of the logo evolved with each round of iteration. With these two concepts, several colour ways were tested. Throughout, the clients would often highlight that they preffered to stay clear from colours such as light blues, greys and dark reds, whilst colours such as purple and orange were colours the clients had a strong pull towards. Orange and yellow shades emphasised warmth which would the clients liked in how this represented The IC, whilst the use of purple was something the clients liked, because of its ‘prestigious’ connotations.

 

Encountering issues with the logos

With both concepts, colour testing with the logos helped to see if the use of three colours within each of the logos was possible. This was explored thoroughly looking at how each colour could represent a sector within the company and correspondingly relate to the strapline in the logo. However, the colour balance when using 3 colours within a logo proved tricky to resolve. In addition to this, the clients were keen to see the strapline contain each of the three colours from the body of the icon. The issue with this, was that the colours in the strapline would often recede and fight for prominence. At this point, it was decided that the first logo concept which integrated both the dot of the I and the C, was the strongest out of the two. The placement of ‘The’ in te second concept proved a challenge and after deliberation by the clients, was disregarded.

One of the major lessons learnt throughout this job, however, was that my process in designing a logo, was not refined from the start. Part of the issue in my production of the logo concepts, was that a lot of the time they were not designed in reverse and rather with counters around them, giving off a false sense of scale. In addition to this, my scaling of the logo was ineffective for quite a lot of my concepts in how the title scaled with the icon. A major and invaluable lesson learnt was how James Lloyd would often recommend to test the logo on a series of mock-ups to see how it would work as a unit. At this stage in the process, my logo did not work as a unit and the scale was rather awkward.

With this learning in place, reconfiguration of the logo into a more compact-like logo arrangement, proved to work better when placed amongst a variety of mock-ups. However, in this suggested change, the clients did not approve of this and were adamant to stick with the original arrangement. This was a slightly frustrating part to the job, as I was unable to convince the clients about why a change in the logo into more of a unit-like structure, would be of benefit to the user in how the logo would scale and work with other logos. This was an issue which needed to be resolved, as my logo which I had designed proved to be ineffective.

 

 

Overcoming issues with the logos

To resolve this issue and ensure that the clients remained happy and on the same page with the project, the logo icon was scaled down to form a more balanced unit in it’s relationship with the text and through testing of the logo against competitors and how it worked with other logos, the design was more effective. At this stage, the colour balance of the logo was also resolved. Initially, the logo design had the dot of the icon in a navy swatch whilst the other two thirds of the icon were in orange. This proved to be problematic especially as the colours seemed to connect with the title and make it seem part of the type.

Ultimately, to resolve this, the upper two thirds of the logo were placed in orange with the lower half in blue, which provided a much better balance overall.

 

 

 

Finalising the logo

One final amendment was made to the logo in the last few phases of the project. The logo icon, whilst better resolved style had awkward spacing to it. To resolve this, the logo was scaled down to the cap-height of the type, which made the logo a much better unit overall. To persuade the clients of this change, I reflected on what I had learnt during the process of this job and showcased the logo on several mock-ups comparing the old version to the new amended logo, which persuaded the clients to make the alteration, highlighting the importance of always testing the logo in situ. With these refinements made, all that was needed to do, was to package the logo files and make some small refinements to the spacing and sizing of the strapline, as the primary logo for The IC, would be a logo without the strapline, whilst the secondary logo, contains the strapline. The finalised set of logos and all of the different colour ways can be seen from below.

 

Building coherent brand guidelines

With the logo finalised, all that was left to do, was to build a set of coherent brand guidelines which could be easily interpreted by the clients and anyone in fact reading them. To help get a sense of what sort of content and layout of content, brand guidelines contain, Spotify, Twitter and Co-op brand guidelines were analysed. All three had contrasting styles but helped to provide a steer as to what the job of the guidelines was, especially in trying to get a sense of what sort of tone these guidelines should be written in.

What I learnt during the process of constructing brand guidelines, was that the content both written and verbal should be concise, so that anyone reading them, can interpret them easily. This is especially true if designers themselves, need to refer to the guidelines.

Therefore, the guidelines developed at the tail end of this project, adopted a relatively restricted aesthetic style. The main emphasis on my guidelines was communicating everything clearly to the clients. Therefore, pages were devised to show all of the different colour ways for the logos and what they are to be used for, how not to mistreat the logo and also how the logo should be scaled when placed alongside other logos, the minimum size at which the logo should be used and more. Pages on typography were then integrated into the guidelines simply informing the reader on what weight of font should be used in which instance. A draft page for the colours was added into the brand guidelines, although at the point of submission, the clients had yet to confirm what three secondary colours to represent their three sectors, they wished to proceed with.

 

An honest reflection

Unfortunately, whilst all variants of the logo and a set of comprehensive brand guidelines, were delivered to the client, it was slightly disappointing, that the full extent of all the deliverables initially stated in the original brief, could not be delivered. The rest of the deliverables including all the stationary, were delivered to a set of second year students. Whilst I am slightly frustrated that I could not deliver the full extent of the job, it will be good to see how the students get on with the branding I have produced for The IC. A test of both the quality of the logo design and the content of the brand guidelines, could be informed by the ease at which, the students can use and apply them.

Having had a period of time to reflect on the job, some of the learning experiences gained from working on a branding project, were invaluable, especially when working in Novemeber 2020 on a more current branding project, as there were skills, which I had learnt and lessons learnt from this job, that were applied to future branding projects and to great effect. This project has therefore allowed myself to evolve as a designer. On a general reflection, my skillset in terms of logo design have evolved and it is fair to say that I was not as adept in this discipline as I initially thought, but as the project evolved and more feedback and lessons were learnt, I believe I have become a much better logo designer, better understanding principles of the logo design process. All in all, I believe a strong identity for the IC was created and one which I hope the company will use for the foreseeable future.

 

Client feedback

“Sirin and I wanted to thank you for all the hard work you put into The IC project. We know it has been a juggling act and wanted to show our appreciation for your patience, creativity and wonderful contribution to what will be The IC visual identity. A legacy!” – Charlene Allen and Sirin Myles

“We appreciate Harvin and all the effort he has put into this project. He has been taking a very professional approach.”

 

Supervisor feedback

“I consider you having worked extremely well on this Real job, and think you should be proud of the final outcomes” – Rachel Warner

Background

This catalogue celebrates the life and work of Professor Anthony Betts, who was a Fine Art professor at Reading University during 1933 to 1963, including work from his peers and students. This will be sold during the exhibition of his work and life in the Reading University.

Brief/restated brief

The brief was to design a 128 page catalogue, showing a range of images, content and types of text. This would be perfect bound. Initially the deadline for this brief was the summer of 2020, however this was delayed due to COVID-19. I was initially expected to design and typeset all the internal pages, with the back cover later added.

COVID-19

COVID-19 directly impacted the delivery of this deliverable, as a week before sign-off, COVID-19 restrictions had just been introduced. This forced the deadline to be delayed to a year after, as this catalogue was to compliment the exhibition. As there was uncertainty as to whether the exhibition would go ahead, there were concerns over whether my catalogue may be cancelled. This was not the case as the exhibition instead was online. This additional time provided me more time to refine the catalogue to surpass the client’s expectations.

Research

It was important to research the audience of this catalogue, and who may be most interested in attending the exhibition. This therefore led me to older readers, who may have either studied under Betts, or just have a general admiration for Fine Art. As a result, this helped me understand that a more subtle design, which focussed on images would be preferable.

To gain a good understanding of the type of design they expect, as well as any inspiration, I looked at a range of catalogues. Many of these focussed on Fine Art. While I had previously understood that the aesthetic was to be traditional, focusing on the images, by doing this, it helped me understand how to approach the content, as well as treatment of typography. This was fundamental in helping me understand the catalogue’s visual identity.

The design process to final outcome

I decided to use a square format, which was a similar size to the catalogues in my research. This was important as I wanted to ensure the reader would easily recognise it as a catalogue and easily use this. I favoured this format, as it provided me with a variety of options when treating images, grids and text.

The margin and grid were designed so to increase the sense on space in the catalogue. Therefore, the gutters were wider, and the page margins were generous. This made the spreads more approachable and attractive for the reader.

I did however want to incorporate some elements of the exhibition, tying this further to the catalogue. I therefore decided to use the blue-green colour for my titles, which my client was planning to use for the exhibition. This added colour to the page and emphasised hierarchy of information.

For the typography, I used Kepler Std typeface. This was used as it has a soft appearance while having character allowing the text-based spreads to remain visually interesting. This reflected the imagery well, and was light, providing additional space within the paragraphs. The typography throughout was subtle, incorporating features, such as en-dashes, ellipsis, thin spaces and multiplication sign.

The typographic detailing was constantly changing, particularly for line endings changing. This was due to changing decisions about image treatment or alterations in space, such as between different headings. Furthermore, as I started to print more spreads, testing type sizes, this naturally changed, as previously the text was too large.

The most challenging treatment of text was for the Catalogue section, due to the extensive differentiation in types of information were required through each section of text. Italic and bold text, hair spaces, numbering and more vertical spacing made this challenging, as each section had to be consistent with each other as well as clearly defined. It was also important to group up the captions, usually to the left page, so the images could be sized and positioned to maximum impact.

The treatment of text differed depending on the types of content. This is evident with the Chronology and Catalogue section, as the differing content forced me to adjust my approaches to these pages. This led to adjusting the typography, such as introducing spaces between the Chronology sections or reducing the type size of the image descriptions. This was necessary for the Catalogue section, as not all the text would fit on a page if sized to the other content. This resulted in a more interesting catalogue, as information was varied, with not all sections looking the same and therefore being repetitive.

Reflection

This project was challenging to me due to the large number of images and general content that required in this catalogue. This was particularly with dealing with different captions and image information, each requiring different treatments. This was often emphasised as these elements had to be consistent, clear and fit into their space on the spread.

Towards the later stages, it was also challenging adjusting or introducing typographic detailing, such as hair spaces between numbers and their measurements or adjusting line endings. This was mainly due to the size of the document, as with that number of pages, it becomes very challenging to design with perfect typography.

Despite this, this helped me appreciate designing different types of documents, and how you may often need support in terms of noticing any potential issues or to help introduce finesse.

While a challenging project, this is something I am very proud of, as I not only pushed my typography to be more refined, but I have also produced a significant project. This is something I did not expect I could do.

 

Background

Our client, Julie Williams, is part of a network called ‘Coaching Reading’, which is a community of people who are qualified and/or passionate about coaching. Together they offer executive and lifestyle coaching. They are a community of local coaching professionals who continue their professional development by learning new coaching techniques and offer free coaching to charities. The network needed a strong visual identity to help provide an online presence in order to build their profile in the Reading area. This project was taken on as a team of 2, Emma and Faith.

Restating and understanding the brief

We had an initial meeting with our client, who told us in detail what her network was and what their aims were for the future. Our client had a background in marketing with very large and corporate companies, which was a positive for us as we could trust her opinion was from professional experience. The initial signed off brief stated the client would like:

• A logo, including an inverted version
• Visual identity guidelines
• Social media banners

The main objectives were to make the visual identity “warm and professional, not cold and corporate, to appeal to both charities and businesses”. An initial suggestion from the client was to perhaps design a logo inspired by well-known monuments in Reading, such as the Forbury lion. After these initial deliverables were completed and approved by our client, she asked us if we wanted to produce some Word and PowerPoint templates, which we were happy to produce.

We would meet up with our client regularly over Zoom, and on occasion we would meet with her network during their scheduled meetings.

Research

To start the project we first developed user personas to help us gauge an understanding of the type of people the network work with.

It helped us get into the ‘mind’ of a coach and what the logo we design needs to exude in terms of mood and design, so it is an accurate representation of Coaching Reading. As Coaching Reading work with charities, they need to come across as ‘professional’, yet ‘warm’ and ‘welcoming’.

 

We also looked at existing logos of coaching companies. This wasn’t as useful as we initially thought; a lot of coaching companies are run by sole individuals, and so some of the designs we felt were a little generic or predictable, likely as they may not have had the time or money to invest in the design process. We wanted to try and keep the logo very understandable yet unpredictable, for example we tried to avoid any logos involving ‘mind’ imagery.

 

Here we looked at some ‘famous’ Reading monuments and symbols. Roman history is prominent within Reading so we were partially inspired by this.

After our first round of designs, members of the network in the Zoom meeting suggested we experience ‘coaching’ for ourselves, as it would help us understand their aims better, and what coaching is in general. We had these sessions and found them very valuable. Coaching is entirely confidential, and is mainly driven by the individual experiencing it. Coaching can help both personal issues as well as business/career related ones; the coach never gives ‘advice’, and instead asks questions about what we are saying, allowing us to talk through our thoughts and come to our own conclusions.

“By talking through my thoughts, I would subconsciously figure out a ‘story’ with my thoughts, connecting the dots and find options in resolving challenges.” – Faith

“The main focus was on me questioning my thought process and coming up with ways to solve the challenge through talking everything through, with the coach acting as guidance by asking questions to guide my thinking.” – Emma

Developing the logos

The development of the logo was by far the most time-consuming part of the project; it took us over two months to finalise a logo. However, we knew this was important to get right as the logo defined Coaching Reading, and would provide a huge stepping stone with the development of social media.

We initially made designs surrounding the Forbury Lion and the Roman history that Reading had. The Forbury lion was something that initially came up in discussion in the very first meeting we had with the Coaching Reading team over zoom. We showed these designs in a zoom meeting with the team, and they provided written feedback which our client sent to us the next day. The main feedback we received was that they didn’t feel like ‘coaching’ logos, the lion in particular looked more suitable for a sports brand. The extra letter logos in particular, which were meant to resemble a ‘road’ travelling through it, seemed to be the closest in terms of what the network liked, but we knew the letter logo could be more developed and refined, so this is the next stage we took.

 

These letter logos were produced next and we showed these in the Real Jobs online meeting. Our idea with the first line of designs was ‘connecting the dots’ and doing this as a letter logo as the clients seemed to lean that way. The key idea was something we noticed in real examples, and we liked the symbolism of it. We didn’t show these designs to our client as feedback from the Real Jobs meeting suggested these ideas just weren’t strong enough yet. However, they did like the concept of letters with an object, so we kept this at the back of our minds continuing the design process.

 

Our client then suggested perhaps being inspired by buildings, so we looked at ‘The Blade’ (top half), The Christchurch bridge and the river Thames. We used blue colours as we felt they were calming and muted; we tried to avoid ‘bold’ colours as we felt it wasn’t suitable for their visual identity, especially after experiencing coaching ourselves. After showing these designs to our supervisor, she didn’t think they quite ‘clicked’, from her perspective it “didn’t make sense” to have a building to represent coaching, and we agreed with her opinion.

 

At this point we felt a little worried as none of the designs we produced so far felt ‘right’, so our supervisor suggested coming up with some core words to describe the aims of Coaching Reading, we came up with two main ones, being ‘growth’ and ‘journey’. With ‘growth’ there naturally came an idea of a leaf, and we liked this idea as it was ‘calming’. We showed these to the client in a Zoom meeting with her network and they seemed to like all of the designs. This was a real breakthrough for us, something finally ‘clicked’ and they said that this was something they could really see working for their visual identity.

 

They seemed to like the first design the most, so we tried to develop this through a ‘pick your own’ logo. We learned through our supervisor that this perhaps wasn’t the best approach as presenting a client with lots of options can confuse the client; we should make decisions on colour and line weight ourselves. We ultimately abandoned this idea as feedback from the client suggested we “strayed too far” from what her and her network initially liked.

Here we went back to what Coaching Reading initially liked in the fourth round of concepts. We tried to refine the ideas, combining the imagery with the letters. We stripped back the options, and showed these to our Real Jobs group. They preferred 1A and 2B for its dynamic, and we added a third option by the request of our supervisor, but we wanted options 1 and 2 to shine as we really liked these. Before, the C and R in option 2 were hand-drawn, so we edited an existing typeface which we felt would fit in with the overall aesthetic of the ‘leaf’ design.

Ultimately, the client chose option 1. We decided to stick to just two colours as this flowed well. The client stated she liked this logo the best as it represents what Coaching Reading is, and when presenting this option in a network meeting they stated how they had not seen a coaching logo such as this before, which they liked. They seemed very happy with what we had produced and this gave us a lot of confidence in ourselves as designers. Fortunately, the logo works well inverted too, the leaf shape really pops out.

Development of social media

Now our logo was signed off, our next job was to develop social media display pictures and banners for Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took the leaves idea and decided to make it a pattern; we created a private ‘test’ account on Facebook just to see how it would look. For profile picture, we had the main logo option, but we also took the leaf from the logo and made it into a profile picture; this is something we noticed a lot of companies do if their logo may not be readable at a very small size. Initial feedback from our convenor was good, however he suggested using a grid in Illustrator to ensure the lines are an equal space apart, and with the icon the leaf stem can bleed outside the circle.

We provided some banner options as well as colour variants of the leaf icon. Ultimately our client chose to have banner option 3, with a light green and dark green leaf profile picture. With all four social medias, we had to use trial and error with ensuring the banners align properly within the space and nothing is cut off, so on submission we provided multiple versions for each social media.

 

As seen above, we tested on both mobile and desktop to make sure it worked on both.

Development of templates

As stated before, the idea of creating templates for Microsoft PowerPoint and Word came much later in the process. Our client urged to us that we were not obliged to do this and it was voluntary, as she knew the start of term in September was approaching. However, we were happy to do this as we already had the logo and social media designs we could use, and it would also give us great experience. Though it was something we had never designed before, a discussion with our module convenor concluded that this was something we would definitely need to know for the future. Initially, our client asked us to produce ‘Word and PowerPoint templates’, however our module convenor suggested it would be better to produce both a letter template and a ‘pitch’ template with typefaces chosen, which we then suggested to our client. She was a little hesitant at first, as she was worried about the ease of use (most people using the templates don’t have much marketing experience), however we insisted it would really help finesse their visual identity and it would be easy to understand, so she eventually trusted us with that task.

We first started to produce some powerpoint templates, as this was the ‘easiest’ to design. We took the pattern from the social media banners and extended it, we also put the leaf ‘icon’ to good use by sitting it next to the page number. We learned about master slides, and templates. By sending the client a .potx file, it will open as our blank template each time, and in the slides panel they can add our slide design to the next page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The letter templates were a little more complex. We had to make sure the text box with the recipient address was in the exact place it would show in the window of an envelope. We researched this and allowed plenty of room in case any text overspills. Again, we used a .dotx file template to ensure it opens up looking like this each time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above is the ‘general document’ we produced, we provided a version with a cover, and one without, again as a .dotx file. With this and the letter, we provided a hierarchy guide. The typefaces we decided to choose were Euphemia for display text and Garamond for body text. We had to choose typefaces which were available with Microsoft Office so they were accessible to all. We felt a mixture of serif and sans serif would appear easier on the eye, as all serif typefaces may appear too corporate, which is what our client wanted to avoid (as stated in the brief). In this and the letter, we have space for Coaching Reading’s address at the bottom, however they can remove this when applicable.

Visual identity guidelines

Our final task was to create the visual identity guidelines. This was done as a pdf document, and we had to ensure it was very clear and understandable; our client emphasised to us several times throughout the project that many people in her network don’t have very much experience with marketing/designing, so we had to ensure to not use too much technical language.

We had various pages showing where to place the logo on a document, how to use it etc. We made diagrams for an easy visual reference, as we used all the typefaces and colours we recommended within the guidelines to demonstrate how it looks. An issue that emerged when showing this to our convenor was the fact that we never considered Pantone colours; with projects which are printed this is important as colours can vary a lot, even with the correct CMYK key. This is something we will definitely remember for next time.

Reflection

The feeling when our logo got signed off was great, we had come a very long way and it gave us a huge confidence boost to know that we can do this, we can produce something very professional and unique. For our first time ever using style sheets and master slides, I feel we did a good job; Microsoft Office is incredibly limited in comparison to the Adobe Suite we are used to. Despite working on this project for a while, we never felt ‘bored’ with our logo, the colours are still calming to look at to this day, which I feel is a testament to us sticking to the design brief.

A fairly obvious challenge with this Real Job was having to complete it during the Covid-19 lockdown. We were never able to meet our client in person, and instead on Zoom and Microsoft Teams calls. This required us to be organised with our files as we transferred them to each other over OneDrive. Internet connection was also a very big negative factor for one of us in particular as we had to work from home, meaning we had to communicate clearly as there was rarely a strong internet connection between the three of us.

In terms of improvement, using Pantones would ensure peace of mind when printing, so this is something we will definitely bear in mind for upcoming projects requiring consistent and accurate colour printing. We also noticed perhaps the PowerPoint borders could be in a higher PPI; it did take us a long time to align everything on PowerPoint and PNGs were sometimes very annoying to work with when imported from Illustrator. This is something we didn’t notice until after sending the files over, and is something that can easily be fixed if requested. However, it likely isn’t that noticeable in a Zoom call (where they are currently using our templates) or if it were to be projected onto a wall.

We both learned a lot of new skills on this project. I (Faith) in particular was worried as I never felt too confident with branding, and for Emma it was her first real job, so there was pressure on both of us. Though there are things in hindsight we could have perhaps done better, such as using Pantone colours and editing some of the PNGs for the PowerPoint template, we both feel proud of this project, knowing we have essentially shaped the image of Coaching Reading. We have developed a very good rapport with our client, Julie, and we know if there are any potential issues we can always redesign things or re-send anything which may need fixing (we have kept all the files from the project just in case).

“They were both willing to participate in a coaching session delivered by two of our members. This experience and the fact that they took feedback on board led to development of some brilliant logo options which were very well received by the group.”

“The final logo, visual identity guidelines and social media banners plus Word and PowerPoint templates exceeded everyone’s expectations and the Word template has already been used by myself for meeting minutes.”

– Julie Williams, Coaching Reading