The beginning of my idea generating stared with a task penny suggested I tried in my spare time. The idea was to choose a subject I am interested in and brainstorm it for half an hour. This really helped identify where a majority of my interests lied. It was largely based around the outside, venturing out, seeing things. This eventually lead to the creative wanderer a phrase I came up with to describe myself, without this task from penny I may have never reached this conclusion. In relation to how this Identifies me, there are two ways. Firstly walking is great for my practice, it clears my head and helps me form new ideas, I may see something along my journey which will inspire me later on down the line. So it applies to me psychically but It also applies to me mentally, as my mind is often wandering. I find my self daydreaming regularly these can spark all sorts of ideas and for me its defiantly a part of my working process.
It also applies to the beginning of my journey into graphic design as I’m only just starting off, I’m just wandering in. I want to find common ground with individuals. I feel my branding really say abit about me in relation to getting out and doing. I feel creatives as a whole are doers so this branding should stand out as positive resulting in them engaging with it. My logo works as a simple icon which can work in a range of situations while still portraying a important part of my practice. The logo is created with a compass in mind yet is stripped down to the bare minimum to make it work across multiple platforms. The compass is to represent my interest in being out in nature but to also symbolise being at the begging of my search for professional work placements etc. Since I am only just starting I need something to guide me in this case a compass work best due to connotations to both personal and professional aspects. It is used with my photography to show a variety of skills as well as interest. It also fits into the brandings sense of wander. The idea behind my branding is that getting out and about into nature helps increase the consistency and quality of my work to a adequate level this is backed up by a article from nat geo called 'This is your brain on nature' A article on the mental health benefits of being outside in nature by reducing stress. This is key in my practice as sometime it can become stressful and overwhelming and I'm sure even more so in the creative industry. Through self branding and other briefs over the course I have found a ever growing interest within branding. There is something about bringing things alive through the process of identity I find extremely exciting. It is a aspect of my work I wish to continue to improve.
When coming up with ways to promote myself I had a variety of ideas. But it was not till I took a step back and really assessed what was necessary I started to come up with ideas which would be beneficial to me. A stamp was my first Idea this would be an easy way to get my logo out there, but when given a second thought realistic it will mean nothing to people just another symbol. I also thought about creating a stamp business card in the theme of a travel stamp, so I could stamp scrap pieces of paper for people as seen in my research. I did like this idea and I thought it fitted in well with the identity however It was a extra something I would do if I had time and in the end I didn’t. I was not interested in making business cards as realistically I am not going to hand them out, they are also very generic and a complete waste of materials living in the digital age, these things are quickly binned.
I had an idea of creating some kind of survival kit for graphic design and sending this off to studios however I quickly found problems with this such as most studios probably wouldn’t need a survival kit from a student, even if it is a nice gesture. I also had the idea to send out some kind of map with the route of a hike on which they could do then send me a route back which I could do. This would be a great one for connecting through social media as I could post progress to them etc. However I decided against this just due to locations although I guess it would work for studios based in west Yorkshire. After speaking to Simon he pointed out I should have an aim of what I would like to achieve through the module. What I found was when I began asking myself questions such as what do I want to come away with from this I began to come up with much more beneficial ideas. So I pointed out that I would like to get some work experience over summer.. For this I needed a cv, portfolio etc. Which brought around the idea of a portfolio zine, something quick and easy which can be used as a base for applying for all sorts of work. Then when reflecting on this I found it was missing a focus so I chose to focus on branding. The Idea here came from a brief I made up for myself to help improve my practice. Its called 30/30 branding and consists of 30 mins on paper and 30 mins digital. Names of brands and rebrands are taken from a variety of places. At this point I didn’t quite know what I was going to do with it, but after a while I decided to turn it into a publication.
|
Firstly I chose a type face for my identity, I decided on a san serif as it is bold, straight forward and has all the right connotations to contemporary design. I tested aileron, Edmondsons, Moderne sans, Odin rounded, Hightide, Aqua and finally Piers sans. I went with piers sans, This can be seen throughout my indentity, It is within my my logo, portfolio zine, branding booklet and presentation. My reason for chosing this typeface was simply because its been created to work as both big type or small, this is necessary as the font will be used over a whole range of media. It really stood out to me, and I felt myself that it worked across a range of media ranging in all caps and different point sizes. The capitals such as A and R have a slightly lower centres this subtle touch makes it stand out from the rest.
The logo of my self-branding was not a huge part of my branding so I did not want to spend a large amount of time on it. I tried to resolve it quickly with the idea that it held connotations to a compass. To keep it in its most simplest form I used the line to represent the spinner within a compass, my initials resemble West and east as the spinner always points towards the north and south. I wanted it to be legible when placed in any position as though it was facing within a direction. This did result in limitation as I preferred the line diagonally, this however didn’t sit right when rotated . To add onto this I began looking into travel stamps as business cards which I could stamp onto paper when I meet people but I did not have enough time to contune this so It is something I will keep in mind when the time comes for me to need a business card or somesort. The images witihin was a great way to incorporate photography in my identity whilst holding meaning. The image is the roots on a banyan tree it represents the beginning of my practice as Im starting from the roots of creativity. And there is lots of growing left to do. It also links back to nature a big part of my Identity. The second image suggests the begin of my journey into the creative world, along side my compass logo to help direct me.
