OUGD602 - Personal Branding Design Boards

OUGD602 - Website

An element to my self branding which I have not done yet is the creation of my proposed website. At this point I do have a Cargo Collective website, and I am in the middle of making that my permanent online presence, updating it with all of my new work before it goes live.

Before getting the Cargo and paying the money to get my own domain name for that, I did look into building my own website, however I felt that I did not have enough experience in website building to be able to do this successfully. Instead, I will work on the proposed website and hopefully in the future this can become a reality.

Second year website

To begin this process I looked over the website I proposed for my previous self branding at the end of second year. It's fair to say that I don't like it at all now and think it's quite childish, and just doesn't look professional at all. It definitely is not reflective of me as a designer anymore.

The main difference in my design from this time last year is that I have been able to refine my skills a lot more, particularly in web design, where I now feel I am excelling at and learning to improve on that every day. With this in mind, I decided on completely scrapping everything I did for the second year and starting fresh.

I wanted a really simple layout with large space for imagery and a consistent approach across all pages.

Development

Final Designs

Homepage - I wanted this to be really simple and for the top image to flick through images of my work, giving the viewer a taster of what I do. Below this is a short summary of my design practice. The latest work bit is something just so the viewer can see the most recent work and be able to click on these immediately.

Projects - I decided on a really simple layout in the end, removing the additional information of the date and tags. I think it works really well with just the thumbnails and project titles. It's clean and simple, and I think the choice of typeface works really well here.

Individual Project - After trying a variety of designs for this page, I settled on this one because it is consistent with my branding and the previous pages. The text at the top and imagery below means that the viewer can look through all the imagery together. I also think the layout variation of one large or two side by side images works well and this is something to keep consistent through these pages I think.

Overall I am really happy with the way this final website proposal has turned out. I think it is much more professional than my previous attempt, and the white space works really well in creating a clean and consistent layout and experience. It works really well alongside my branding as well, and I hope that I can have this built some time in the future.

OUGD602 - Personal Branding Photography

OUGD602: Studio Brief 2: Extending the Branding

To complete my personal branding and promotion, I thought about what I already had and what else I needed to create a well-rounded approach.

Currently I have the following:

• An identity - bespoke icon & bespoke typeface
• An A3 Portfolio
• A coptic bound portfolio
• Business Cards
• Website - Run on Cargo Collective (+ Personal Domain)
• Behance
• Linkedin

Overall I have a variety of things which to an extent do promote me, but there are a couple of other things that I definitely need in moving forward in networking etc.

A CV - When looking at design studios for their requirements for applications, a lot require a portfolio and a separate CV. At the minute, my CV is included in the portfolio, so I need to create a simple document which is just the CV. This also needs to be updated with comments that have been made previously.

A mailout - This will be instead of the coptic bound portfolio. The coptic bound portfolio is large, and with the stitching, it means that it can't be freely updated easily like the A3 portfolio. As something small to send out to studios, a mail out with maybe four or five projects in, instead of the amount in the A3 portfolio will be much better. As it is small it will be easier to work with and change when necessary.

Stationary - A selection of letterheads, invoices etc need to be created. To have a web version of these will also be good as not all clients will be in reach of a paper copy.

Realistically, these are the only three things that I need to complete my professional brand. It seems a bit wasteful to brand other items when its not necessary.


With the portfolio I previously created - the coptic bound one - I had chosen a new identity marker for myself. This is something that I am still happy with, and with a bit of editing, I have decided to continue to use it.

At this point I have also developed a sans serif version of the typeface previously used, so I will be using that from now on instead of the slab serif version. It looks a bit more professional as it is a cleaner and more consistent design.

I have also decided on a brand colour of grey to go with the black logo. It's quite professional and I think it works really well with the logo.

CV

For the CV I wanted a very simple layout, and while developing this I found that I really liked the use of a 'side bar' as it were - a strip of the grey along the left hand side where the branded information and contact information would be. It's something quite different to what I have done in the past.

Mail Out

I wanted the mailout to follow the same appearance as the CV in being a structured layout. The main thing for the mailout is that I wanted it to be easily changeable when it comes to the projects in it. To do this, I decided on a very simple layout with switches for each page turn. The grid is also simple so the image spaces can be changed depending on the project.

For this mailout I decided on including projects that showed a variety of skills.

Digital Version:

Stationary

Now that the CV design has been completed it is just a case of applying this to the stationary items which I need - a letterhead and invoice.

Something extra that I decided on adding is an A5 pad of paper with lists for every day. This is due to the fact that I like to write lists of things to complete for a specific piece of work or to complete in a day. It's something that reflects my design practice.

OUGD602 - Studio Brief 2: Self Branding - Creating a Typeface

After previous reflection on my portfolio and self branding, I have decided that I will move forward with creating a typeface for myself.

I have decided that I wan to use it for headings, dates, and an identity. I also want to include a hand rendered element to the design, and perhaps have a digitised hand rendered typeface as it shows my interest in hand drawn typography as well.

I went through styles of typefaces and decided that I would make a Slab Serif style typeface. It isn't quite as formal as a Roman serif typeface, but also has a bit of individuality to the typeface.

With this, I looked at a variety of Slab Serif typefaces. Below are the ones I particularly like.

Choplin

Hapna

ALEO

Musket

Timber

Kelvin

I collected a wide range of Slab Serif typefaces/logos and put them all on a document, printing it out so I could go through it in more detail and pick out the attributes of each letter that I like. I have found that when I use a typeface, there's always a letter or two that I really don't like, so I really want to make an effort to accommodate my personal tastes in letters while keeping it uniform and consistent.

Points I want to use:

• The middle of the 'M' must not touch the base line. Vice Versa for the 'W'
• The font must not be wide like 'Sedgwick' (Above)
• 'Romanesco' is a good proportion
• I like the idea of serifs being on the outside of the letter instead of both sides
• A bit of character of the curves (R & Q marked above)
• The 'O' and '0' must be different
• The 'N' shouldn't have serifs on the top left or bottom right
• A semi-bold to bold weight ('unchained')
• An Ampersand will be needed (Wheatless & More Client Project)
• Uppercase
• Would prefer a fully round 'O'
• Don't like the serif on the top of the 'A'
• No serif on the end of the cross bar ('E' & 'F')
• 'U' and 'V' must be visibly and very clearly different
• 'B' bowls must be symmetrical

After deciding on these factors I decided on making a start by hand. I want to draw out every letter by hand and then digitally alter them so they are more consistent.

I started by drawing a grid, deciding on 4x4cm, with the thickness being 5mm. There is also an extra 5mm on either side for serifs. Having a square grid means that 'O' will be a perfect circle, and 'X' will be a square.

I initially started with the idea of the letterform filling the 4x4 space and having the serifs in the 5mm outside this.

I also wanted an individual serif shape, so instead of having just a straight slab serif, I want an angle to it.

I tried both of these as shown above, however I think that the letters are too wide. While the 'H' and 'N' seem to work well, letters such as the 'X' and 'Y' just don't seem to work so wide. I am also a bit concerned about the style of serif on the letters with diagonals. Once again it works well on the straight letters (H & N) but doesn't work so well on the other letters (X, V, Y). This is because the diagonal of the letter changes the point where the serif bottom meets it. Also the serif size on these letters are different to those like 'H', which is something that I need to really consider.

I did briefly try the idea of having the serif go 5mm from the edge of the diagonal, as shown below, however this made the serif look overly big in comparison to the others, and overall it just doesn't sit right with the character.

I also tried the idea of having a thinner serif. Three variations of serifs are shown in the 'Z' below, with the thinner serif shown on the other letters.

I then tried it with the thinner serif with a diagonal as well, as shown below. However I much preferred it with the thicker serif and diagonal.

After settling on the thicker serif and diagonal I drew out each of the letters to the grid. I expanded it for the 'M' & 'W', and made it smaller for 'I' & 'J'. All other letters were made to fit the grid.

For the 'Q', I added a unique tail instead of having it just a diagonal across the bottom right. I really like how this worked as originally I was a bit unsure.

As I drew these on layout paper, I photocopied them onto a thicker stock so I could create the block shapes without affecting the paper and letterforms.

I then scanned these into the computer and turned them into vectors on Illustrator.

There are clear issues in terms of line width and serif size. While I initially wanted the hand drawn feel to the typeface, I am unsure about it now seeing it vectorised. I feel that it just looks unprofessional like this and perhaps something more digital and clean would look better.

I then went through a few stages of change before finally settling on what I was happy with.

Stages of change:

The first thing that was immediate was that while I had drawn the majority of the letters to the same width, this is not the case in the majority of typefaces, and some letters would benefit from looking thinner. As this is my attempt at creating a typeface that I am happy with in all aspects, I needed to edit letters in the way which I thought worked best. Letters such as 'E' 'F' and 'P' were made thinner in width.

The line weight for letters with diagonals was also an issue that needed to be altered digitally. This is clear in the 'Y' shown above, where the arms of the 'Y' are much thinner in the hand rendered design than in the final design. I wanted the weight to be consistent across all elements of the letter anatomy.

In terms of the serif style, I tried a variety of styles both by hand and digital, and as I created the typeface over a number of days, by the time I had it digital and was on the finishing stages, I found that I much preferred the straight serif as it works well with all the letters and doesn't have the issues that the diagonal serif does with letters such as 'Y'. This is shown clearly above. I also wanted to use the idea of the serif being just on the 'outside' of the letter (Look at 'M'), so decided to keep this as a uniform trait across all letters that needed a serif. While I initially had serifs on both sides of the base in letters such as 'P' and 'F', I like the individuality of the serif to one side. It shows that I have considered the overall look of the typeface and not changed the serif use depending on the letter.

Finished typeface:

While I had initially wanted to create a hand rendered typeface, I do think that the final typeface is far superior to my hand drawn designs. I do think I can say that it has kept true to what I wanted because the hand drawn process is wha really aided the design of this typeface. It gave me a much greater understanding of how the letters work on their own and with others in terms of width, spacing and serifs.

Overall I think the typeface has turned out really well and I am pretty confident that the letters are all individually strong and it works well as a typeface. The serif to the left has really grown on me and I think it is something that differentiates it from any other slab serif typeface. I also did eventually include a serif to the top of the 'A'. I initially didn't like this in other typefaces, however I think it works really well in this typeface.

Typeface is use: