RJ00227 London International Development Centre (LIDC) rebrand

Designers: Fabio Rahmani and Orla O’Connell

This London International Development Centre Real Job project was assigned to Fabio during the Christmas break period, and began with initial back and forth emails with the client to discover what work needed to be done. It was decided that a re-brand was required which included work for the social media presence of the organisation, a re-designed website to improve the user experience and a new logo.

Initial meeting

For the initial meeting, Fabio travelled to London to the office of LIDC to meet with the managing director to get a better understanding of the requirements of the project and the direction that the new director had envisioned for the organisation to go towards. Fabio prepared multiple questions to gain a better understanding of the organisation and their budget. Budget turned out to not be a huge factor, although it was constantly considered within every stage of the design. Through this meeting, Fabio also found that the client wanted to approach the rebrand in a way which would portray a modern and approachable identity towards the clients target audience.

Logo

The design process of the logo involved analysing competitors brand identities, which allowed us to highlight that key features such as approachability and community. We showed the client 12 initial sketches and they decided on the fractured letters that spelled out LIDC, but also made some suggestions for changes that they would like to see. We then went on to make the changes, and add another set of variations of that logo to allow the client to decide on which style they preferred. Once the logo had been finalised, we went on to add the colours and created variations with the colours to show the client. Below shows the finalised logo design, as chosen by the client.

Communication

For a few weeks after the initial meeting, there was a lack of response from the clients end, and when a response was sent it was often not relevant to the question asked which made progressing a little difficult. This may have been due to the client not knowing exactly what they wanted. Due to the lack of communication in this time, Fabio began designing the new website with existing content on their current website due to not being supplied with a new site map or content for the new website. Through the lack of responses Fabio learned that he should not always rely on emails but should instead use phone calls to get an instant response when it’s needed.

Second meeting & Communication workshop

After a long period of silence, Fabio received an email stating that LIDC had hired a communication manager to truly find out what direction the organisation should head towards with the re-brand. The new communications manager invited Fabio to attend a workshop that she was hosting to get all the members of LIDC to voice their opinions about the way in which the brand should progress. Fabio also showcased the first iteration of the website whilst at the workshop, explaining the key features and explaining whether some ideas were feasible from a web development standpoint. Through this we learned the benefits of hosting a workshop when the client doesn’t know exactly what they want or need and it also allows direct face to face communication which is far more efficient than conversing via email.

Website design 

One of the main aims of the website re-design was to cut down on the content, and to create a more concise site map. The old website had a lack of colour and a very outdated theme which meant that one of our main aims was to create a modern design, that also doesn’t detract away from the information that is being displayed. We had to ensure that the design appealed to both potential research students as well as research funders. Through creating clearly labelled calls to action we aimed to allow users of any technical ability to efficiently use the website.

To make the website more friendly and approachable, the use of bright vibrant colours was used in conjunction with the use of colourful photography. We also decided to keep most the background white as it would increase the contrast of the text being set against it, allowing for increased legibility for the users of the website.

An additional Designer

After the long period of a lack of communication, LIDC requested for Fabio to create the mobile version of the website also but due to the way in which the deadline had been pushed back, this was no longer possible for Fabio so Orla was brought on to develop the mobile website following the style guidelines implemented by Fabio. We had 2 weeks to create the web designs for desktop and mobile.

Mobile design

Orla had to adjust the information and the style that Fabio had created to fit the smaller canvas size of a phone. The small size of the mobile screen meant that the information needed to be broken down into smaller sections, to enable the user to read and understand the content with ease.

 On quite a few of the pages, the information is broken up into different sections within the app, for example shown in the three green boxes below. When the box is clicked, information is revealed, making it less overwhelming for the user, rather than the user having to read all the information in the section in one go.

An important part of any design is consistency, the mobile version of the website consistency uses the visual identity of the desktop design. At the top of each mobile screen, there is an image along with the section of the app the user is in, for example ,’About us’, ‘Contact us’ or ‘Teaching’, this helps the user when navigating through the app.

Furthermore, on each of the screens there is a burger menu in the top left corner. Once clicked, this then reveals the menu. Here the user is able to go to different sections of the website.

 A second colour is introduced on some of the mobile screens, which is also quite bright and eye catching. The purple is used for buttons that lead to another page. The addition of a second colour adds differentiation to the clickable elements of the screen, the green is mainly for sections of the screen containing information, whereas the purple buttons link to a new section.

It seems that there may have been some misunderstanding that Fabio and Orla were working on the mobile and desktop version of the website separately as the client only responded to Fabio with feedback and corrections. However, Orla was still able to use the feedback given to Fabio to make improvements to her mobile screens. From this real job, Orla learnt how important communication is between designer and client, in order to make sure both parties are on the same page. In addition to this, Orla  was able to improve her skills in being able to adapt a design, to work successfully in another format.

To conclude

The new deadline was the same time as 2 other projects and our dissertation which meant that we could not pay complete attention to this project as we had hoped during the 2-week window that we were given to complete the web designs. We were still in the process of refining the designs when we received an email stating that they wanted to take what we had done already to their web developer so he could create the website for a quick launch. They said that they liked our designs and that they would be enough for the developer to create the website from. Due to this we were not able to complete the web designs to a standard that we had hoped to achieve.

In the end, we learned that if the client is not communicating at an reasonable speed, we should do more to go out of our way to get a response such as using phone calls to get the clients attention rather than an email. We also learned about the importance of thinking about the way in which web design functions between various platforms. The workshop was also a good learning experience and is something that we will utilize if we ever have a client that doesn’t quite know what they want.

If we had more time we would have continued to develop both the desktop and mobile designs to a standard we were both happy with. Furthermore, if we were able to work on the majority of the design aspect of the job during term time, instead of the Easter break, we would have made sure to utilise supervisor feedback more effectively. During the time we worked on the brief, we made sure to meet up and discuss our designs regularly, in order to help each other improve. We also made sure to show our peers the designs we were working on, in order to gain additional feedback. Also, if we were to take this project on again we would utilise Trello more effectively as we primarily communicated our designs and process vocally whilst meeting up and showing each other the work we had done, but through using Trello we would have been able to record our progress more effectively and we would be able to refer back to it to effectively back up our design decisions and reference pivotal moments within the design process.

Ellie Hewitt, Fay Biggs, Fabio Rahmani, Jack Smithers

This project was initiated due to a branding module that we undertook during our third year of studying at The University of Reading. The module consisted of rebranding Connect Reading, which is a Reading based charity. After attending a meeting with Kirsti Wilson, the Managing Director, we created a prototypes and mockups of a range of deliverables and presented our idea for a new brand identity to her.   

Client meeting
Kirsti was overwhelmed by how much work and thought we had put into the project and therefore decided she would like us to bring our designs to life. To begin the process of the real job we attended another meeting with Kirsti and Tracey Rawlings Church (one of the members of the board for Connect Reading). During this meeting, we confirmed that the final deliverables would be:

– New brand identity (logo/colour scheme/typeface)
– Website
– Promotional video
– Information pamphlets
– Annual impact report
– Business card
– Social media overlays
– Stationary items

In the meeting we were advised not to use as much of the ‘midnight blue’ colour which we had initially used throughout many of our deliverables due to cost factors. We was aware of that the charity did not have a huge financial budget however this was stressed further to us. For this reason we agreed that any items which were printed would feature less colour than those that were digital however we would ensure that all still fit the new brand identity.

We also agreed that the new promotional video that we would devise, should describe what Connect Reading broadly does rather than focusing on a specific event which we initially had.

The timeline requirement for work was discussed and Kirsti expressed that she was very flexible and would allow us to create the deadline and schedule for the project. Overall a second meeting with Kirsti was very beneficial as it allowed us to gain more of a relationship with her as well Tracey Rawlin Church.

Board meeting pitch
During the meeting with Kirsti, she asked us if we could present our previous work to the board of directors to ensure that they also were happy with the progress that we had made so far. We agreed that this would be an amazing opportunity as it allowed us to gain a further critique on our designs and would give us an opportunity to pitch them to a well-established and executive board, which we had not previously done before.

The board meeting was held at Reading Buses headquarters which meant we were unfamiliar with the IT system that was in place. Therefore, we were advised beforehand that we should put the presentation on a USB and present from the computer that was fitted within the room we would be presenting in. Unfortunately when we arrived this did not go to plan which meant we has to experiment with the projector and use one of our laptops to present. Although this was an issue it was resolved easily and efficiently as we arrived a lot earlier than the scheduled time in case an issue like this happened. This emphasised the importance in always be prepared and arriving early.

Overall, the feedback we were given was positive and one of the board members whom is a marketing director even stated that it was one of the best pitches that she had ever experienced. She also gave us more input on our deliverables, particularly the video. She mentioned that we should use language which the audience would speak themselves and not overcomplicate it. In addition, she advised us not to use sound effects as it takes away from the seriousness of the topic.

Following on from this we had a team meeting to arrange how we would split the tasks evenly. We agreed that Fay would continue to be our team leader as she had been so far and had already built up good communication with Kirsti during our previous module. From then on we took the feedback we had gained from the board of directors and implemented these into making our final deliverables.

Social Media
Fabio’s tasks within the Real Job project for Connect Reading were to develop and complete the social media post templates, to effectively communicate social media growth strategy to the client during the pitch to the board members and to transfer the design that was created for the annual impact report to a word ready template.

The Social media templates packages contain both PNG’s to overlay on top of images as well as the original files to make changes to the existing design. Fabio created a variety of templates which included variations in colour and in the written text present on the overlay. A template with no text was also created to allow the client to add their own text for new events and seasonal greetings when required. We will also be meeting with our client to effectively communicate how to use the templates, how to make changes and how to upload the imagery onto social media.

For the social media growth strategies, Fabio could introduce the idea to the board members during the pitch which took place at the Reading Busses head office. Within his section of the pitch, Fabio covered extensive research from studies and personal experience on the most effective way for Connect Reading to gain exposure through social media. Through communicating with the clients directly, allowing them to ask questions highlighted that not all clients will have similar technological experiences and may require more detailed explanation which will be an important factor to remember whenever we have to pitch ideas to clients in the future.

Annual Impact Report
The annual impact report was one key deliverables for this project as the client uses the report to sell themselves to potential clients, boasting an impressive network and equally as impressive numbers. Throughout the branding project we created a document in Adobe InDesign to display all the information within the annual impact report in an aesthetically pleasing way, but as we learned throughout the Real Job segment of this project, our client (and our future clients) will not have access to the same software as us, and won’t always want to hire a graphic designer to make a few simple changes to the written copy. For this reason, Fabio took the initial design and recreated the re-designed annual impact report in Microsoft Word which is our clients preferred software to use. Initially, the annual impact report was designed to be printed but as the project developed it became clear that the report would be sent out via email as a PDF allowing us to freely use colour without worrying about the printing costs. It also meant that Fabio had to make minor changes to the design such as changing sections of the annual impact report which contained columns of text, changing them into one longer column of text to improve the on screen reading experience.

Video
Ellie was tasked with creating the new video as she had already made the previous one. To begin the process she brainstormed the main information that needed to be included and asked Kirsti what aspects of Connect Reading she wanted to be highlighted. From this she created a story board that could be sent to Kirsti to ensure that all the information was correct before devising the video.

When speaking with our supervisor, Ellie was made aware that the storyboard would need to be more detailed in order for our client to interpret the information fully. It was agreed that to do this she would give more description on the visuals and give guidance on the timing of the video. Our supervisor also pointed out that we would need to be more conscious of the symbols which we used as some may be seen as offensive or not interpreted in the way which we anticipated. For this reason Ellie developed the story board further. It was critical to get this feedback as it gave us insight that we need to be more aware of the design ideas we are sending to our clients over email vs. how we can describe them face to face.

The second design of the storyboard was presented more professionally and clearer for our client to understand. Ellie then presented this to Kirsti, who was extremely impressed by the amount of detail it provided. Together, Kirsti and Ellie agreed on minor changes to the script. Following on from this, Ellie recorded the voiceover of Kirsti so the video would be more personal to Connect Reading and their story.

While making the video, Ellie discovered that by placing other brands logos upon the design would clash and would not be visually appealing. For this reason the white versions were used and placed on the iconic blue circles that are used throughout the video. This allowed for the design style to stay consistent throughout.

Overall, we believe the video has been structured well to stand out from competitors while telling the story of Connect Reading. It can be used successfully across all social media platforms as well as the website.  

Website
Besides being project manager, Fay was also tasked with the design and development of the website. It was stressed during the branding project as well as the client and board meetings that the website and annual impact report were integral parts of the organisation and their redesigns were a priority. The objectives we developed in our restated brief aimed to create a website that was current, structured, easy to navigate and easy to edit and maintain from the clients end.

Because of the stricter budget of our client, the website had to be developed without the use of typical online web or blog builders and hosting services such as wordpress.com or wix as Connect Reading had already paid for their annual hosting and domain subscription with another server. Therefore, Kirsti put Fay in contact with developers from an agency here in Reading that were responsible for hosting the current Connect Reading site to discuss how the website can be developed and deployed. From meeting with a developer from the agency, it was suggested that the best approach to take was a wordpress powered site developed through the wordpress.org software. This website would be self hosted during the developmental stage and then packaged to be deployed by the agency who would host it.

Fay had never developed a wordpress site using the software before so it was an opportunity to develop a new skill in learning how to set up a site, databases and SQL servers. The experience was challenging at first, but the technical knowledge gained from it would become an asset in future development of client sites. Throughout the developmental stage, constant meetings with both the client and the developers helped give constructive feedback on both the design and technical aspects of the website. The developers were able to give key advice on realistically implementing some aspects from the design, making us aware of design components that we would have to change to create a more workable and easily maintainable website. The process of consulting and working with front and back end developers also provided an introduction to future experiences in the workplace where a designer would have to collaborate with various skilled individuals on large collaborative projects.

Unfortunately, the night before this job submission, a crucial wordpress plug in update broke some formatting and javascript design elements of the site. The technical difficulty was unforeseen and reminded Fay that site backups and being flexible and prepared for technical errors as such was a crucial part of being a web developer, especially when working towards a deadline. In the next coming weeks, Fay will be fixing the last few technical aspects and meeting with the web developers to ensure the site, software, databases and widgets are all functioning to make sure the client hand off and maintenance is as efficient and easy as possible.  At the end Fay was able to implement the designs proposed during the branding module into a responsive and dynamic wordpress site which will be later deployed in time for the organisation’s 15th anniversary.

Business Card
Jacks task within the project was to redesign Connect Readings business card with the new branding. The original business cards were very plain and not eye catching. Therefore, the main objective was to ensure the new design would stand out and give a good first impression to anyone viewing it.

As already discussed, the midnight blue colour should be used minimally on printed objects. Therefore, Jack looked into different approaches that could reflect the brand without having a high use of colour. Overall we feel that the business card gives a professional reflection of the company and meets the needs of the deliverable.

Powerpoint and Letterhead templates
Jack also had the task of creating a new presentation and letterhead templates that Kirsti could easily adapt without the need of any external help. It was arranged in our meeting that these would be created in Powerpoint and Word as these were familiar to Kirsti. She would also be able to export PDF’s easily and continue to save money on printing costs.

As the letterhead had a main purpose that would be printed, it was essential that the midnight blue was used minimally whereas the Powerpoint could incorporate more as it would always be digital. This reiterated to us, that when designing for our clients we should always consider how these documents will be used. Moreover, we believe that these deliverables would be easily adaptable for Kirsti and therefore meet the objectives and fit the new branding.

Sign up form
The original sign up form boasted a corporate aesthetic, therefore, Jack had a task to redesign it with the new brand identity. As Kirsti sends this to clients via email, it was essential that it was easily accessible to all that may want to use it. Therefore, the best document type was a PDF. This would allow businesses, charities and schools to easily fill  it out online and send it back. The usability of the document was considered throughout and therefore we undertook user testing to ensure that people who had not seen it before, could easily interpret the information and fill it out. This taught us that we should alway gain insight from others as it gave a new perspective.

Conclusion
In conclusion, we believe that we have created a vast range of deliverables which reflect Connect Reading’s new brand identity. For each deliverable we considered its primary audience and its use, which influenced the design choices that we made. Therefore, we believe each deliverable meets its objectives. The restrictions we encountered allowed us to each develop new skills.

Working with a proactive, organised and helpful client ensured that the job ran as smooth as it possibly could and indicated that making connections such as the one we have developed with Kirsti would be beneficial for our future careers. To develop this project further we will continue to liaise with Kirsti and the board or director at Connect Reading and make final adjustments to the deliverables and ensure that the brand is reflected to a professional standard.

Client meeting
The aim of this job was to create 6 motifs which could be used across various sports fashion clothing items. Through our initial meeting with our client, we discovered the target market for the clothing was 16–28 year olds, with students being a large segment of this audience. Our initial aims were to experiment with different shapes, explore different ways that the brand name could be presented e.g. ‘young’, ‘y1’, and to experiment with different typefaces.

When reviewing the information with our supervisor it was questioned how these designs would be transferred onto the clothing. As we had never worked with physical fabric items before, this was something we had not thought about. However, it taught us that when designing motifs for garments, the fabrics and manufacturing can play a huge role on our designs and educated us to always ask questions about these aspects in future projects. After speaking to our client further, we were made aware that the designs could be applied through embroidery, stitching or printing. They explained that they would choose the method of application after we had sent the final designs.

Communication
In our initial meeting with our client we arranged that all contact would be made through WhatsApp and that designs would be sent over as jpegs so they were easy for them to access. However, throughout the development of our project, communication slowed down on our clients behalf which made it increasingly hard for us to develop design ideas. This was because the feedback from our client took time to receive and was often undetailed.

We were made aware by a third party that our client was out of the country for six weeks, which meant that we had a considerable time difference which was slowing down communication. We persisted to engage in conversation as much as we could, however communication stopped completely. After speaking to our supervisor, we were advised to call our client to try converse over the phone, which would allow for quicker responses. However, after leaving messages, communication still did not re-emerge. This led us to email the client with a notice that if we did not hear any response by a particular date, the job would dissolve. Finally, we received a response that they were happy to continue.

Due to having a long period with no contact, we decided it would be beneficial to meet with our client face-to-face and therefore arranged a second meeting. During this time the client apologised for the lack of communication and we agreed that the job would continue but a updated restated brief was needed as the requirements had varied dramatically from the beginning of the project.

We learnt that we needed to be clear in our brief about the terms of communication and therefore added a section about this where we detailed how further communication would happen and explained that the more feedback we were given, the quicker the process would be in developing the designs. The schedule was also updated and contained times that we would send designs over and when it was expected for them to respond. We learnt that in this situation we needed to be the leader of communication and ensure that we both parties stick to the schedule for the job to run smoothly.

After this, we found that the job ran smoother however the amount of feedback that our client gave was still minimal. To ensure that we explored many ideas we relied on feedback from our peers and supervisor.

Design process
To begin the design stage we were under the impression that our client wanted clean, modern, typography based designs therefore we experimented with this. We originally attempted to create a concept for a set of design which could be used together to create a range of clothing items. However it was made clear that the designs may not be used at the same time and they did not need to work as a series. This was similar to the issue we encountered with the meaning behind the designs. We experimented with many different ways our designs could convey a concept for example; music and the original branding. However our client expressed that he did not necessarily want that from the design. This was something that we found challenging as our experience in design so far has always encouraged us to convey meaning or have a purpose.

The problems continues as, after sending many design ideas our client asked us to use the same typeface as a well-known sports fashion brand. We saw this as a concern as it we believed it could look like the designs were ‘fake’ versions of the particular brand. We understood that saying that to our client wouldn’t have a great deal of affect. Instead we interviewed many 16­–28 years olds to ask their opinion. This information confirmed out initial thoughts and therefore we presented this to our client. This taught us that user testing is imperative in ensuring that the design meet the needs of the user. It also emphasised that it can sometimes be beneficial to challenge a client and the designs may progress and meet the requirements of the brief more.

To continue with the project our client asked us to design motifs with graphic aspects rather than typography based ones and stated that the words such as ‘young’ and ‘y1’ no longer needed to be incorporated. Therefore we experimented with further designs that featured animals, landscapes and shapes (all which they stated inspired them). After sending the updated designs to the client they then stated that they would like this information to be incorporated again. It taught us that clients can sometime become confused about what they in vision and it is important that all details discussed are featured in the restated brief to save time towards the later stages in the project.

Final designs
Overall, although the job was a challenging period, we believe that we have created designs that meet the needs of the updated restated brief. The six motifs are modern and clean and would be attractive for a 16–28 year old audience. We have ensured that each motif can be easily transferable on different clothing garments and none would be manipulated by folds or creasing that may be caused when they are worn.

After our second meeting with the client, all deadlines on the schedule were met however, we were unable to send over the final designs to the client in time for the deadline that we had agreed, as our supervisor had not signed them off. This taught us, that in future when designs need to be approved before they can be sent, we should always allow more time for them to be reviewed than what we initially anticipated. This would then give us more leeway and still ensure that we meet the deadlines.

Conclusion
This job has taught us that when clients have multiple other responsibilities they may need to be reminded to continue communication with us as designers in order for the job to be completed in a reasonable time frame. While the job took longer than expected to complete it provided us an insight into how important it is to provide a schedule and ensure it is stuck to. Largely it provided us with project management and client management skills that we would not have gained working from a hypothetical brief.

Restated brief

Two groups of students in Geography required logos and a simple brand system for their project. Each team was acting as a consultancy of their own and would pitch their reports in presentations to their year group at the end of term. The outputs required for both teams were a logo and Microsoft Powerpoint template. They were to reflect the professionalism of the group and represent their research areas accurately staying away from clichéd imagery.

The first team, Permadrain, wanted a logo that was simple and modern that would reflect the urban aspect of their research as well as promote the idea of sustainability. The second team, Barkham Brook Water Quality, wanted a brand system that was simple and modern relating to downstream water quality.

Permadrain

The design process for Permadrain saw the experimentation with the concept of the urban environment and the flow of water through the neighbourhood. I also considered different typefaces and arrangements for the logomark and type in consideration of their uses. The final logo is a leaf-water droplet with the veins of the leaf representing the pipeline of water going through the area of research.

Barkham Brook Water Quality

For Barkham Brook Water Quality, the logo is a reflection of the changing water quality as it is filtered through the purification system – the core aspect of the research focus. This is also reflected in the colour gradient that gradually lightens as it reaches the bottom. The group changed their name in the last minute, but the concept remained the same.

The slides for Barkham Brook Water Quality were much simpler than the Permadrain ones due to its “footer” quality. The graphic does not get in the way of text boxes, allowing it to remain in the same position no matter what type of slide is used.

Key takeaways

At the time of the brief, neither of the teams had names and this made it particularly difficult to create a concept or factor in the length of the name in the design. Although this was an opportunity to suggest names paired with concepts to them, the students felt that they better understood their research context and chose their own names instead.

Towards the end of the Real Job, it came to light that several groups had misunderstood the brief and the names of some groups changed last minute. This affected one of my groups, but because the logo was built on a concept based on their research (rather than relying on imagery from the original name), I was able to continue with the design process.

I also learned the difficulty of using and designing for Microsoft programmes on a Mac system. The features offered in the Windows systems were also different from the ones offered on an Apple machine. This limited my choice of typefaces and I had to consider using fonts that are readily available. Due to the rushed timeline towards the end, the Powerpoint slides I created for the groups were very basic and I did not have time to play around with the visual impact much. I also did not manage to control transitions, which might have affected the quality and coherence of the presentation (although that in itself is unknown).

As my first Real Job, and the only one I did alone, it was a good stepping-stone for future expectations working with non-designers – particularly having to keep in mind the “anything that can break will break” scenario.

 The Ethos of the Conservation Project

The department was approached by Maggie Shelton, the Community Catchment Officer of the new heritage lottery funded project named Watercress & Winterbournes. The Test and Itchen rivers from the chalk of the Hamshire downs form a unique landscape, the environments that are home to Winterbournes and chalk streams. The client defined these as rivers which rise form the chalk lands and flow within the landscape of rural fields.  These rare habitats are home to a wide diversity of wildlife and plants,however these landscapes are at risk from pollution, drought and flooding. The pressures of modern change and development threaten these habitats and therefore the Watercress & Winterbournes Conservation Project is beginning to establish. The ethos of the organisation is to restore the built heritage and addresses these environmental issues by bridging communities together for the environments to thrive, preparing them for future generations. The purpose is to fund projects for members of the community to take part in which will maintain the health of the terrain. The client wanted to brand the project, briefing the design of 3 logos per student as a 2 part project. These designs would then be presented to their board to choose from. This Real Job is a fantastic opportunity to design for a project promoting environmental awareness, such a pressing ecological issue we have provided with chance to visualise. It was really important for me to consider that the standard of design, in addition to the values it promotes will grant the conservation project further attention and advertising. The more the design was considered correctly, visualised to promote the ethos of the conservation project, the awareness of this environmental aid will be further established and convincing to its viewer.

The Clients Specifications

The meeting with the client allowed her to explain the values of the project in which she wanted the logo to encompass, as previously understood these are extremely important in logo design/branding as they formulate the correct message directly. Prior to beginning initial ideas, I ensured I defined with Maggie Shelton the complex subject of the study and directly what she wanted to reflect in the design that would be communicated to the potential audience members. She informed me about the conservation, defining the environmental terms in detail and according to my questions, which I ensured had to be grasped before creating an accurate logo concept. From my discussion, I ensured I asked what she expected from the logo and if there were any visualisations she specified. Shelton identified that the logos weren’t to be literal indications of the conservation name, as the project is defined by addressing a variety of issued based on the heritage and the landscape of the habitats. Shelton specifically identified the logos were to capture elements of water movement, as the streams and rivers are the main components of the conservation. She additionally specified that elements of the landscape such as plant species associated with the streams would also be a design expectation. These designs were to work in black and white, with additional detail in colour. Shelton identified the design was to identify with a character of style and this was worth introducing into the development in researching illustrative methods. Each logo is to be comfortably legible at a large and small scale for inclusion in reading documents, presentations signs and banners.

Visual Concepts & Initial Ideas

As I begin every project, I created inspiration boards soon after the client meeting to have a fresh idea of what they specified. I ensured I understood the conservation project and the subject matter, followed with corresponding visuals and concepts. I began with sketches of several designs which porgressed to more refined developments, working on the alliterated ‘W’ which I identified as a characteristic unique to the conservation when compared to other associates/partners of heritage funded projects, such as Portsmouth Water and  Salmon and Trout Conservation UK, the project would, therefore, be distinctly identified amongst the collection. Focusing on Shelton,s specification for the logo to capture an illustrative character, I researched illustrators and illustrative styles which practiced these characteristics, associated with visualising natural landscapes. Dawn Cooper inspired my approach, an illustrator whom I was familiar with from my Dissertation study with illustrators from Puffin Book cover designs. Coopers work is characterised by the use of texture to give the impression of rural and organic tactility almost, which I felt immediately is relevant when designing for nature conservations.

Design Development

I began working on the typographic elements, which established my modern and clean approach to the logo, which could have been done to appear as traditional with the use of a serifed typeface. I chose to work with Freight Sans using the ‘W’ to edit combining my scanned illustrations with further editing to a more established and professional logo. Developed from my drawing, I digitally manipulated the ‘W’ to have water ripples as if to be sitting half in water. The water is not visualised with wave movements but replicates the slow flowing movements of streams, this attention to detail was informed by my study of the subject matter which, as I stressed from the beginning, was important to get right as an inaccurate idea may be communicated. I then added colour which was chosen to the clients specifications of blues and greens to relate its subject of nature, therefore artificial/unnatural colours were to be avoided. I then added reflection to the ‘W’ which would be the additional detail Shelton had specified for the colour edition. Inspired by Dawn Cooper to move away from a still and static corporate logo characterised by flat colour, I added texture and which from user testing people associated with organic nature, which was the appropriate reaction intended.

Following the client’s additional specifications for the logo to encompass iconography relating to the landscape, I added illustrations of Cat Tail Reeds which I researched grow in the chalk streams of the Hampshire downs which identity as a characteristic associated with their landscape. With additional user testing at this stage, individuals were asked what they associate the illustrations within which the response specified ‘reeds that grow in streams or rivers’ which again was the exact result intended. I then added my illustrations to a single arm of the ‘W’ and then to both sides for variation, these were then sent to the client for feedback. The problem arose when composing the geometric ‘W’ with the illustrative reeds, they were separated by the use of a stroke, this was decided as when converted to black and white the shape became undefined be the grouping of both visuals.

Conclusive Proposal

My designs will continue to develop with 2 additional logo concepts for submission to the client in the following weeks. My current variations of logo work with and without the addition of the reeds and will depend upon what the client admires, however both editions can be sent to her. In my opinon the ‘W’ logo alone works and received positive feedback from viewers more so than the edition with reeds, however I feel it implies a corporate message rather than the ideals of a nature trust which is expressed through the organic design of the progressed logos with the reed illustrations. They additional conform to Shelton’s requirements of illustrative character and iconographic elements of the landscape. I plan to improve the current logo varying contrasts of colour to avoid the use of an unnecessary stroke which prevents the unification of elements crucial for logo design. My approach with logo design is to explore every concept I have in mind to the full, exhausting every option to achieve the best result. As the client required three different logos for me to design in order for them to propose, I am currently in the process of designing a ‘W’ made out of reeds, hands holding a stream sitting alongside the text and also experimenting with the use of a reflection – every logo includes and considers the clients specifications of water flow and landscape, meeting the brief in addition to Shelton’s vision.

Introduction

The brief was to create a logo and brand identity for the newly funded Natural Flood Management Reasearch Programme headed by three major universities here in the UK. The task was to create a programme logo as well as three subset project logos as well as branded deliverables such as newsletters, letterheads, powerpoint templates and blog sites in four sets corresponding to each logo. This project began during the second semester of this year and was chosen for the opportunity to continue honing my branding skills. The branding project took place the previous semester and proved to be an area of design I felt that I particularly enjoyed and excelled at. I wanted to continue improving these branding and marketing skills I had gained from the module. This job initially was for a single person but after the first client meeting, my supervisor and I agreed the job was more suited for a pair. Camara, my colleague from second year agreed to take this real job alongside myself, a deliberate decision to encourage collaboration across years and work with others inside the department.

Research 

Joanna Clark, our Reading based client here at the university wanted a brand identity and subsequent print and digital deliverables for a government funded environmental programme focused on natural flood management. Joanna was the head of the Landwise project, one of the three projects that comes under the overall programme with colleagues in other parts of the UK who headed the other two projects. With so many stakeholders in the project, from the advice of James Lloyd, we chose Joanna as our main point of contact as she was Reading based – organising contact and feedback with the other directors through Joanna.

From the first client briefing meeting, Joanna detailed the nature of the programme and projects to us. The clients field of study is based in the environmental sciences so a lot of topics and subject details were quite complex and foreign to both Camara and I which led to an extensive research phase. Joanna and the other two project leaders, Emma Shuttleworth and Nick Chappelle did give us a lot of information via resources such as project proposals, manifestos, text books and academic studies. Upon request, they also put together mood boards of their visual elements they felt represented their projects or appreciated for it’s design, giving us a better sense of what directions their visions were going in and finding a way to match and improve upon that.  We knew that to accurately capture the essence of such a large programme in our new brand identity design, a deep understanding of the topic of natural flood management would be essential.

We began the research phase looking at two areas that would influence the new brand – the technical, academic side of the programme as well as the design and branding side based on the visual styles used by partner projects, organisations and competitors. Reading into the topic of flood management, we became more aware of the geographical areas these issues take place, the ecosystems surrounding these areas, the people and places they effect and the studies taking place to help prevent such issues. We also assessed other government funded programmes, non profit organisations and environmental associations to see how they interpreted their fields of study into their branding, giving us a better idea of what visual styles were common in this sector and how we could improve on those to create something that was unique but still consistent and synonymous with the environmental sciences.

Client Meetings and Feedback 

Compared to other real job and freelance projects I have undertaken; this was the first time I have worked with a client who was a scientist by profession on a project based in the sciences. This was important to bring up as this influenced the ways in which we interacted and presented work to our clients. During our client meetings with all three project heads, we found that giving feedback and design opinions were more minimal due to this misconception that science and art or design are on two polar ends of a spectrum, that being a scientist negated their design opinions. We also realised in this project, that detailed design aspects like typeface differences and colour swatches which are noticeably different to designers or typographers were not as noticeable to clients who have never had to consider or assess such concepts before.

We decided to combat this by encouraging an atmosphere of complete comfort and honesty when expressing feedback and ideas – that no idea was too unreasonable and that the more feedback we could get, the better we could improve on our designs. Because of the variety of stakeholders based across the UK resulting in minimal face to face contact, we decided to present all work for feedback in simple pitch like slides with annotations and blurbs to explain design decisions (use of a font, colour changes, placement etc.), putting into context why we chose to do what we did for better understanding, comparison and feedback. This approach was well favoured by our clients, who felt it was easier to make design decisions on well annotated work that gave insight into a process they were not as familiar with, stating it was a very professional way to have work presented to them.

Branding 

This project posed quite a challenge as the branding task not only required one logo and brand identity, but four – requiring careful choice in form, colour and typeface to create an effective, consistent and cohesive set of visual identities and sub-brands. All brand logos and identities would not only have to meet the client requirements of being vibrant, exciting, visual and professional but would also have to work alone as separate brands and alongside each other on programme deliverables when needed. We took a look at famous brands and their sub-brands, assessing the various ways in which they create visual singularity while staying consistent with its “parent” brand.

Colour Pallette

Colour was naturally the first tool we thought could help differentiate the different project identities. A carefully selected colour palette would allow us to create a set of multi functioning swatches that work well on their own as separate sub-brand swatches and that match well with each other to create a larger multi coloured palette that was symbolic of important project aspects. This was my own interpretation of the brief, incorporating the research into a meaningful colour palette that could allow for easy sub branding.

Logo work

We wanted to stray away from the text heavy logos common in this field of science and create a visual and iconographic logo. The next course of action taken was applying the colours to its appropriate symbolic imagery. The client’s description of the “constant movement of flowing water” when describing the topic of water management inspired the use of line work and colour blocks to symbolise not only water, but crop rows on farms that are affected by flood and the waving lines of rolling hills in the moorlands (which are also the ecosystems and geographic locations where these three projects target). The clients were very receptive of this symbolic patterned line work and colour blocking, noting how impressed they were with the attention to symbolism and imagery as well as the high quality of of work. This concept of colourful line work continued to be developed, playing with shape, symmetry and form to create several sets of logos that were eventually narrowed down to a final programme logo and its corresponding sub logos. This logo was ultimately chosen for it’s ease of recognition on both print material and online sources like social media profile pictures due to its bold lines and bounding shape.

We knew the client specifically requested the use of a sans serif font so a small selection of a variety of sans serif fonts that were geometric, condensed and rounded were selected for the logos. The typefaces had to be both clean and professional looking but work well with the varying widths of wavy lines in the logo imagery. The clients collectively agreed that their preference for the classic, bold and clean Futura PT outweighed the others, taking the more corporate approach to logo’s typeface.

Templates and Stationery

Camara’s role in the project thus far was being in charge of applying the logos, brand identity and brand guidelines to the deliverables specified by the client. The newsletter, letterhead and powerpoint templates applied the colour palette and simple flowing wave design to create a clean and consistent set of templates. The logo was kept the focal point of each design with simple colourful accents to complement the clean and minimal visual approach.

Project Management 

Project manager has been a role I have been volunteered for by my partners during group projects and real jobs throughout my degree even though I struggle with maintaining a consistent time management schedule. Over the course of this degree that became more apparent in both my real jobs this year, as I was placed in a role of leadership and was expected to not only keep my group on task and in high morale while simultaneously producing quality work and being the main liason with the client. I have always enjoyed leadership roles but have always struggled with time management. Thus this role was a challenging job, but was a skill I was determined to improve on by acknowledging my struggles and trying to combat them.

Moving Forward

During the course of this job, I realised that dealing with multiple stakeholders and larger clients can be challenging as feedback can sometime take longer to receive, or video conferencing can be difficult to schedule with multiple clients. We tried to keep everything as organised and as professional as we could with scheduled feedback meetings, development presentations and minute taking to ensure we did not miss any key information or instruction. Unfortunately, branding can be a long process of trial with feedback from various levels of your client’s organisation, with many “back to the drawing board” moments. This project has been one of those moments but has given us invaluable experience for the next time around. The set of finalised logos I have shown here will be reworked in the next few weeks as part of the ongoing process of design and feedback. I hope to pursue branding in the future as my discipline, so this experience of reworking and trial and error will be something I am prepared for now and can even take steps to lessen or avoid.  However, Camara and I are continuing and determined to get this brand right for our clients as we believe so deeply in their program and have been grateful to have had this opportunity to produce work for such clients. We are already in the midst of developing the idea into new territories and are excited for how much further we can take this project. Luckily, our clients have been extraordinarily flexible with the schedule and have given us a lot of creative freedom to experiment. A revised set of logos, branding and deliverables should be completed well within the next month.

During the summer term of 2017, TypeTogether organised a poster competition for the Part 2 students of our department in order to showcase their new typeface. Lisbeth was designed by Louisa Fröhlich, a Typeface Design MA graduate from University of Reading, who started working on the typeface as part of the MA. When describing her typeface in a conversation with TypeTogether, she recalls:

“I always liked the idea of a stroke which has a subtle three-dimensional feel to it and which has the ability to somehow move more freely. Not to create a swashy diva, but rather to put this vividness and energy inside practical and efficient letter proportions.”

After seeing the typeface myself when the competition was first announced, it’s this subtle three dimensional feel of the typeface that inspired me and motivated me to take part in the competition and try experimenting with the letterforms to create a typographical poster using Lisbeth. The brief was simple: To create a 70cm x 44cm portrait poster as a digital output in order to showcase and promote the release of Lisbeth, while only using 3 spot colours. The primary audience of the poster would be graphic designers and the secondary would be other type users.

I was excited at the idea of the competition right away, since the brief gives us a lot of freedom on what we can produce and allows for a lot of experimenting with the typeface. As a first step, I looked into the TypeTogether foundry to research other similar posters that were created to promote and showcase other typefaces, eg. the Bree Typeface poster. The common features of all the posters I had found were their simplicity and focus on the letterforms, making sure that the typeface itself is the main element of the poster, with no other competing graphics on the posters.

Next, I looked into reading about the typeface, through the profile page of Lisbeth on TypeTogether, and the interview between the foundry and the designer when the typeface was being released. The unique features of Lisbeth come from its subtle three-dimensionality, its twisted letterforms, and the fact that it was an italic-only typeface.

When I first started working on the concepts of the poster, I focused on the geometry that can be created when rotating the typeface and creating a pattern out of it. While it was fitting of the brief and did a nice work in promoting the unique selling points of the typeface, I found the results to be bland and unimaginative when compared to other typeface promotional posters, in the sense that it didn’t characterise all those features that Lisbeth was described earlier. So I decided to focus on the three-dimensional feature of the typeface and try to create a graphic out of blown up characters using the display font of the type family.

I could not, nor did I wanted to, change any of the shapes of the letters in order to create a 3D graphic, so I had to find another way of really showcasing its three dimensionality. I started to experiment by using the letterforms as clipping masks in Illustrator, and fill them up with different shapes and lines, without corrupting its design, but due to the complicated and twisted characters, it was very hard to add any other elements within the type. On a second try, I started working with the idea to create a blend of a character from the typeface, in order to truly highlight its twisted shapes.

On the technical side, I had to edit the lines and anchor points of a letter, (in this case ‘M’), find all the parallel sides in the character, and try to create a blend for each part, without changing any of its shape. In order to do so, I connected 8 different parallel lines using the blend feature of Illustrator each time, and then manually had to connect each anchor point of each line, in each blend (there were about 16 inner lines for each blend), since not all the anchor points lined up exactly with each other. There are also no parallel lines on the sharp caps of the typeface, so the blend had to be made from a single anchor point, which ended up requiring a lot of editing after the blend, in order to keep the shape of the cap the same with the original letterform.

It took quite a lot of time till I had managed to create the effect out of 2 letters, “L” & “M”, chosen for no other particular reason, other than “L” was one of the easiest characters to create the effect from when trying it out, and “M” being one of the characters with the most parallel features, which really helped highlight the twisted lines of Lisbeth when blown up using this effect.

After creating the blend of “M”, I started experimenting with the positioning of the character, taking up most of the poster. It was really easy to create an aesthetically good result due to the changing twisting lines that when viewed on a screen, can seem like they are moving when viewed in smaller sizes and higher quality. After deciding on the position of the character, I added a secondary copy of it in a parallel line below it, while also making it bigger, with thinner strokes. This allowed me to create a more subtly shown blend, on top of the main one, that helped bring out the three dimensionality of the typeface.

In order to bring out the lighter lines of pink and white against the blue background, I created a grain effect behind the lines, to increase the contrast between the colours. The pink colour created a feminine character for the typeface, but was also overpowering the dark blue background and being very clear and stout, even though the lines of the blend were only at 2pts. After deciding on the rough position of the blended characters and the colours of the poster, I started adding the main text of the poster. I created a tagline using a quote from the book The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, as I found the characteristics of Lisbeth very similar to the protagonist of the book.

“Lisbeth. Oh, can I call you Lisbeth? I want you to help me catch a killer of women.”

The main tagline was left aligned and was positioned between the interacting arches between the two “M”, in order to make sure that the text was legible and was not hidden away behind the blended characters. Based on the grid that I created for the poster structure, I aligned the TypeTogether logo along with the various weights and styles of the typeface at the bottom of the poster.

Overall, I am quite happy with the end result, even though when I look at it now, I can see a lot of improvements that could have been made. What I really enjoyed during the competition, was not the end result, but rather the process of creating the poster and experimenting with techniques that I wouldn’t usually get to use. The Lisbeth brief for me personally, was one of the most fun and enjoyable projects I took on during my second year and left me wanting to do more similar work in the future. Although, I do understand that such briefs come rarely, I’m hoping to take more similar work in the future. Not promoting typefaces particularly, but rather design work that allows me to use my own personal style and gives me space to try new things.

While winning the competition was a reward in itself, I was more excited about seeing my work first on the TypeTogether blog, and then days later, shared by Louisa Fröhlich herself on her personal social media account. As I haven’t produced much work outside of university so far, it was rewarding seeing my design living outside of the bubble of the university and in the real world. Only thing I can hope for is more Lisbeth poster competitions in the years after graduating.

Brief

The degree show is an annual display of work by the undergraduate and postgraduate students at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication. Traditionally the MA and BA programmes would send out separate invites. However, this year the brief was to combine the shows. A print invite would be mailed and an email will also be sent out later to remind invitees of the event. Additionally, the degree show required online presence to generate buzz as well as a point of reference for students’ work – this included a website and social media campaign.

Deliverables

1. A print invite that is in a format suitable for post and that would give incentive (in terms of content and quality of design) to come to the show
2. An email invite created and sent via MailChimp based on the print invite
3. A simple visual identity for the degree show, including a name
4. A website with information on the event as well as students’ work
5. Social media campaign/event

Schedule & Team

The degree show dates were: 7th June 2018 (Private view), 11th – 16th June 2018 (Public view).

A team was formed in early October 2017 comprising of four members: Sigrid, Callum, Emmeline and Caroline. An initial deadline for the print invite was set for end of spring term (23rd March). However, this eventually shifted a month later, to 23rd April 2018. Two weeks later the email invite would follow. The website also needed to be completed before the invites were sent out (around mid-May) and the social media campaign would start around April to build a following and awareness.

Designing

In the beginning of the project, everyone put out potential concepts and ideas for the degree show. Because the degree shows combined the MA and BA programmes (with the exception of MA Type Design), we needed a solution that would allow our work to mingle but simultaneously distinguish the MAs from the BAs. Several approaches were considered for example, typographic, abstract graphic and symbolic (using icons). During this time we also looked into past solutions from the department as well as what students from other colleges/universities had done that we enjoyed. Eventually we decided on an information design approach which would allow the flexibility of distinction between programmes, while presenting the graduating class as greater than the sum of its parts. We also wanted to include a personal quality to the invite, somehow reflecting each person’s experience of the degree, and for it to have a dual-quality of formally inviting people yet being an informal piece of information design.

Print

A3 was the format chosen for the degree show invite as we wanted it to be a poster of reasonable size that we could still mail out. Going into C5 envelopes, the degree show invite would be folded twice into A5. This influenced the design as we had to take into account the fold lines (not putting text along the folds and not using a reversed out design due to cracking ink). The print invite went through several iterations and refinement.

The degree show invite is a representation of the graduating class from the MA Information Design, MA Creative Enterprise, MA Book Design and BA Graphic Communication programmes. We created a survey to gather responses on people’s experience and thoughts on the degree, which would then feed into the design of the invite. We did extensive research on data visualisation techniques as well as approached our tutors and lecturers in the department for feedback and advice.

We also considered using a typeface designed by alumni from the MA Type Design programme in order to further encompass the department’s specialties. However, the incompleteness of the typeface we had access to affected our decisions and we used Googlefont’s Noto Sans for the final design.

The front of the invite was an opportunity for us to explore interesting reveals with the (un)folding. It was also an opportunity for us to put down the names of the graduating class as information in this space was less crucial than the inside page. We included a map to the department indicating parking availability and instructions for getting permits. This was also redrawn to match the style of the invite overall.

Our colour scheme altered as the project progressed as we moved towards the possibility of spot colour printing. This simplified our colour scheme, stripping it down to three colours – lime green, jean blue and black. Suprisingly this helped the design look more cohesive and worked for the better in the long run.

MailChimp

The MailChimp invite had a dual function – to get invitees to opt into being emailed again next year due to a recent change in EU laws regarding information and privacy. This was the primary call to action. The secondary call to action was to RSVP to the show. We combined these call to actions as a single button.

Website

The website uses the Bootstrap framework and is responsive. In keeping with the concept of the print invites, we created a randomised display of people’s works so that no one persons’ work is prioritised.

To collect people’s work, we created a submission point using php that formed a database of people’s work that gets called and displayed according to their names. This eased the process of getting students to upload their work and ensured that communication was as clear as possible between the team and students.

Social Media Campaign

Our Instagram account was created to feature students’ work and process images of the degree show. We wanted the social media to reveal more detail about the work behind the degrees that every student completed and is suitable because of the informal nature of the platform. We also used hashtags to increase our visibility and reach.

Lessons

Through this Real Job, we learned the advantages of working together with team members of different strengths. Having someone on the team dedicated to the website and another person leading the print design allowed the team to focus on each deliverable. Frequent feedback sessions with different members of staff each time also allowed us to push the design further as we would get fresh eyes on the material.

However, a lengthy project that has a similar deadline to our dissertations meant that we lost stamina over the course of the project. If we did this project again, we would have avoided delaying the print job by a month and more fully exploited the possibility of printing in spot colours. This would have contributed to a more vibrant print design that people would be more likely to keep.

On the website, we also learnt that no matter how simple you try to make things, people will still upload things wrong and there needs to be leeway for extra time to fix and edit their mistakes.

Overall, this was an enjoyable project with deliverables that many of the graduating class are eager to keep for themselves. Working in a team also taught us to learn to trust each other and give each other feedback. The reception to the invites have generally been positive from both the graduating class as well as members of staff; we look forward to seeing the fruits of our labour at the final degree show.