'Build A Brand' One Day Workshop

For this one day workshop, we were put into creative trios at random (I was put with Issy and Vicky) and given a random trade that we would have to produce a brand for (We were given Welder). This would be a start-up company ad not a re-design of something existing. We would also have to produce a brand style guideline to articulate the structure of the brand. The next day, we would be giving a presentation showing the guidelines for our brand but none of the development.

The first thing we had to do was brainstorm what it was that a Welder was and did so from that, we would be able to make an informed decision in which was we would like to take the brand.

Welding Brainstorm

Welding is the trade of joining together two materials, primarily plastics or metals, through heat. The main things that welders produce are repairs as well as doing work on cars or furniture or even, producing their own sculptures or art based on materials they have welded together. The actual process of welding is quite a dangerous one as there is a high probability that the welder will get burned so there is a need for protective overalls and accessories. The trade is quite a traditional skill which was normally within a family run business, where the knowledge would be passed down from generation to generation. Another thing we noted was that being a welder is a typically, masculine-dominated industry, as you instantly just presume that a welder would be a male.

Whilst discussing things that Welders do, we felt that it would be a good idea to specify an area of which we could work with as we felt that producing an identity for a general Welder would be too difficult to do. We spent some time looking at work that had been produced from welding and felt that there was a strong connection in feeding an identity through furniture.

Concept Brainstorm

From furniture, we decided to focus on a welder who specialises on furniture so that we could focus the brand identity on this. We liked the idea of the furniture being old furniture or pieces of scrap materials that have been made to produce recycled yet beautiful pieces of work so we decided to make our brand quite ethical. With welding being such a specific skill that use to be passed down within families, we felt that it would be a good idea to make a family run business which was a one -off which kept all of the morals and traditions of the past. The small scale of the business would mean that it would have a target audience of local residents within the community and would have to advertise within local channels. This audience would give us the need of having a tone of voice that would be friendly, authentic and homely. What we liked was the idea of having a female as the main family member rather than a male so that it broke the stereotype of it being a male dominated industry. We felt that a great place to accommodate the business was The Shambles in York as we liked the aesthetic of being traditional and independent with a heritage to it.

Brand Guideline Outlines

From this, we talked about the branding guidelines that we would put in place for the company. We felt that the ethical nature of the company would mean that anything printed would be printed on recyclable stock. The idea of producing adverts in local newspapers we felt also made sense, with the reusable nature of the stock as well as the locality of the advertisement. We felt that business collateral like Invoices and Cards would be relevant to the cause of the company as well as for the promotion, due to the small scale size of the business. We felt that a website would allow for an online presence that people could get information from yet any other digital form would be inappropriate.

Branding:

The main things that struck us about Welding is the reaction that is given when two metals are being melted together, which produces a flame or spark. We liked the visual that it gives you from thinking of a spark so we felt that it would be great to call our brand Sparks & Co. so that it had a traditional element of the inclusive brand name. Following that, we felt that Co. made the brand sound way too corporate and too big for a start-up family company so we decided to change the name to Sparks & Sons so that it was much more family-orientated and scaled down.

Logo Design

The next thing to do was produce a logo and Vicky designed the logo for the company, making a traditional aesthetic modern through the font choices and layout of the type. The font is 'Dragon Is Coming' in 48pt, which is quite large but needed to be so that it is legible to read. The font is also slightly bolded with thicker strokes to add clarity as well as give a more friendlier appearance. The body copy font is 'Apercu' in 14pt which gives a contrast from the script font. It is very traditional whilst the sans serif physicality gives it a modern twist. We decided that it was important to have the logo encompassed within a circle so that there was a definite block of information.

Original Layout

As soon as I was given this logo to work with, I got straight onto producing the business card for the company. I felt that, to keep with the business guideline of the logo being within a circle, it would be different to have the logo in the format of a circle. This would make it so that the company would have a memorable and unique business card compared to other competitors. I decided to put some basic information on the back of the card with a landline phone number and an address for the shop. I thought that, by having a landline number and address, it would come across as more trustworthy as a business.

Colour Experimentation

As a group, we were having trouble coming up with a colour scheme to represent welding. We didn't want to use a typical black and bright colour combination as we thought this was unimaginative. I experimented with using grey and pastel yellow as I felt that this was a much more understated. The only problem was that is was illegible and difficult to see.  

Colour Scheme

After looking at images of burned metals, we felt that it would be a good idea to use colours which are brighter so that it gives much more of a vibrant and modern feel. The teal colour is to represent the oxidisation of copper and the reaction between the heat and the metals when they are welded together. The pastel yellow is to highlight the sparks that are given off during this process. 

Business Collateral:

Applying the Colour Scheme

I applied the colour scheme to the business card trying out a different layout, having the circle within  a rectangular format but this didn't give a sense of individuality. The colour scheme itself is much better than the previous attempts as it gives a much brighter perspective and vibrant approach to the business card.

Final Business Card Design

I changed the format back to being a circle and had the font changed into the teal colour. This way, it would work with the overall colour theme of the brand. 

Product Tags

Taking the format of the business cards, I changed it slightly so that I could produce a design for some product tags that could be attached onto products so that they have their details of where the material has been sourced.

To develop the branding, I felt that producing practical things that the business would need would be the most suitable step for the company.

Initial Invoice Design

I started having the invoice on a plain white background with the yellow and teal being quite minimal, just suing the teal for the text and the cream for breaks in the information. I felt that this was quite understated and made use of the colour scheme without being too overwhelming. I made sure not to have anything surrounding the logo and made sure it had plenty of space surrounding it so as not to go against our brand guidelines.

Developed Invoice

Despite this, the group decided that the background of the Invoice needed to be yellow to go with the design of the website so this meant that I had to change the colouration of the information breaks so that it was in keeping with the rest of the information.

Quotations

Using the Invoice as a template, I went onto producing a quotations document alongside it so that the discussed work prices and actual payment costs were separate. The fact that they have their own Invoices and Quotations gives a much more independent yet professional image to customers.

Letterhead

From this, I felt that it would be acceptable for the brand to have letterheads of their own as well so that they can make notes during quotes and be able to pass these on to customers as well as make notes to each other. The letterhead follows the stylistic qualities of the rest of the collateral.

Proposals:

In order to improve the presentational quality of the groups work as well as give a context to the design proposals, I contextualised them by photoshopping the images of Vicky's website and Issy's flyer into a iMac and a newspaper advert.

Photoshopped Proposal Images

This instantly improved the quality of the images we were proposing and gave a much more professional appearance for when we would present them. It is important that our brand is seen as professional and I felt that this added to this tone of voice.

From this, I produced some more proposals on Photoshop that could be used to demonstrate other elements of the business.

Rubber Stamp Proposal

To go alongside some parcel tags, we felt that having a rubber stamp would be a great way of showing the quality of our products in store. By stamping our logo onto a product, we would be highlighting that we have personally sourced, produced and made the work ourselves and that it is to our highest standards. This aims to give an element of trustworthiness to the brand.

Window Sticker Proposal

We felt that having a window sticker would be appropriate for the business as, with it being a small independent shop, it would be a way of advertising ourselves to locals who walk past the shop and haven't heard of the brand before.

From the work we have produced, I think it is very relevant to the small scale nature of the brand and the community audience that we are trying to attract. Anything else would be too over-the-top or irrelevant which would be pointless and, if anything, costly to the company. With what we have produced so far, if the company grows and expands out then they can always add more using what we have already put in place.

Brand Guidelines:

As a group, we needed to be able to put all of these things we had talked about and considered into a Brand Guidelines Book so that if anyone was to design or produce work for our brand that they would be able to do that to our specific company guidelines. For the group, I was the one who produced the Brand Guidelines:

I laid out the brand guidelines in a simple yet professional manner, trying to adhere to our brand guidelines themselves to produce int in order to highlight what they are like when put into practise. I stuck to using black font and a white background throughout so that it was clearer to see what out practises are but I did use the teal colour and the header font for the headers. I feel that it is very clear about what the brand is and what we want for our company.

As a joint group task, we produced the actual presentation together, with Vicky designing it and me and Issy having imput into the layout and what should be included in it.

The presentation itself was very simple and relied more on images then on text which we felt meant that we would have to reply more upon ourselves and our own input into talking during the presentation then on the presentation itself. In regards to the presentation, we didn't have enough time to practise it and I felt that it affected our performance in general.

Finally, I had to produce a design board for the brief

Overall, I felt that we did a good job in coming up with a new brand from the beginning. As a group, we worked very well together and it was nice to have the opportunity to work with people I would not normally work with. If we were to push it further, it would be nice to be able to produce a wider range if items for the running of the shop and to produce some proper printed collateral but, given the time limit that we had, I am very happy overall.