OUGD504 - Logostarter - Evaluation

General Comments

This was the first branding/logo project I've done since my AS year at college, and although I would never want to compare my work from then to my work from now, I feel that the experience, even from that long ago, has helped me in this project. By this I mean right from the very beginning I considered things like how the logo would look at different sizes, and how the logo could work as either just text or just image. This combined with the considerations that I have become important whilst studying at university such as printing limitations, printing costs, and ease of reproduction have resulted in me completing the task to what I feel was a fairly professional standard. In the evaluation of my last project I mentioned correctly using different software together, and I feel like this project has built on that even further by adding Illustrator to Photoshop and InDesign, which I’m pleased about.

Successes

I feel like my research for this project was pretty spot on in that it all ended up having some sort of influence on my outcome, and I think this is reflected in my outcome when cross referenced with the research I did. By this I mean that I established what sort of typeface to use, use of colour, and general feel of the overall design.

Given the nature of the product I was designing for, I feel I did well to avoid potentially obvious and very much negative connotations of drink driving, which was something I highlighted early on in this project as a potential stumbling block. Instead of this, I think the logo I created has a pretty strong emphasis on motion and movement, and the references to alcohol within there are quite subtle, and very immediately avoidable when placed out of context. This is important as there are numerous examples of logos that provide all sorts of the wrong connotations and suggest the wrong sort of thing whilst taken out of context.

Whilst I was developing the logo I was experimenting with the use of colour, and was contemplating using grey and blue to suggest refreshment like in the Coors Light logo. I spent about 3 hours doing this, and the outcome of that, whilst justifiable, threw into question its ease of reproduction, it’s printing cost, printing limitations, as how it would look at different sizes. Given that I spent so long looking at colour, it’d have been easy for me to stick with the grey and blue, and to be honest, it’s something I probably would’ve done this time last year. So on a personal level I feel like the biggest success of this project was to objectively assess and make logical considerations on my own work, which has been a problem for me in the past.

Changes

I often feel like I follow a pretty rigid process when working, and so I quite often say that I wouldn’t really have done anything differently in retrospect. This project was different though, starting from my choice of project. When I first saw the Kreweser I thought, “this is perfect for me” and took it from there, but what I didn’t consider was how the problems that the company has when presenting itself severely limit the amount of options for a logo and branding.

Building on this, I regret not experimenting with abstract styles of logo’s, as this would’ve avoided the limitations of the products branding, as well as potentially having a very modern and trend based logo that would’ve worked in the sense that it attracted a modern audience.

Going Forward

I think that the main thing I’ve taken from this project is not to write off abstract design immediately, which is something I’ve done in the past as I’ve been under the impressions “anyone could do that, what does it even mean”. Whilst this viewpoint isn’t likely to change any time soon, I think I definitely have a new found appreciation for the occasional use for that sort of design.