Air Plant Decor

 Brief

First I took the brief and created a page to highlight key points. I bolded important information and placed in images of the webpage given for inspiration to help me when designing as I can quickly refer back to key points of the brief and get design inspiration from the site they liked.

Research

Next I carried out some research to help give me some design inspiration.

Colour Scheme / Illustration Style

First I did one for the colour scheme that was given to me and inspiration for the style of illustration I would like to create as I am looking at drawing a small plant to go along with the typography. I took some of my colour scheme inspiration from the plant image as this is where they got the ideas for the colour scheme from.

Typography

Next I made a mood board of typography to help me when creating the typography portion of the logo. I found a couple of script fonts to keep with the delicate nature theme, but mostly sans serif as this is the style of font used on the logo they gave as inspiration so is most likely what they are looking for.

Similar Style Logos

I also found some existing logos for similar nature based companies to give me inspiration for layout and design. I think this will be very useful when designing as I can take elements from various logos and put them into an effective solution for my client.

Initial Ideas

I drew out some quick sketches incorporating plants with simple sans serif text in different layouts. This helped me to experiment with lots of different layouts and ideas before taking the best ones on to screen.

Development


First I tried out different fonts to help me select the most effective for my design. I chose all sans serif fonts as this was the style used in the logo they provided. Doing this was very helpful because I could be sure I had experimented with many options so that I can choose the most effective outcome.

I then began to develop these typefaces further and began to play around with the additional plant element. I chose a bold sans serif font because I think this is bold and will stand out whilst being simple enough to be placed with the plant element. I didn't like this initial plant because its not clear enough that it is a plant so I decided to develop this further.

I made various other plant elements and experimented with colours and placements of them as well as adding in shapes and boxing elements. I think the addition of colour is effective because it stands out against the type a lot better than plain black and helps the designs meet the brief better as these were the requested colours. I tried adding in an air plant with the circular shape and although this captures the company nicely I don't think it works well with the text and looks over complicated. I also tried adding leaves on to the side of the text and I think this adds a nice decorative touch but I think this would need further development to integrate it better with the text.

First I tried developing the plant and text integrated image from the above page by developing the leaves so they were separate from the text. I think this is a lot more effective because it doesn't hide or clash with the letters but still blends in nicely. I changed it too the colour scheme and experimented with typefaces. I think this design is simple and could meet the brief but I want something that captures the company better. I next tried integrating a drawing of an air plant that I created with a simple sans serif typeface as I didn't want to over complicate the logo as the design the gave for inspiration was very simple. I added in the lines to integrate everything together. I then tried lots of different layouts of this idea. I think this idea is an improvement on the first but it could be hard to add colour without overcomplicating things and I think it might be worth trying to completely box it in as the open edges make it look a little unfinished.

I then further played around with the layout of the previous design and ended up boxing it in and I think this looks more effective as it makes the design look more connected and gets rid of the unfinished look the previous designs had. I also tried out the design in a circular shape but I think this ended up looking far too complex for a main logo and wouldn't work well for websites etc. and something simpler would work better.

Next I played around with the colour scheme suggested in the brief. I tried various combinations  but none of them really seemed to work with this design. This told me that the design isn't suitable as the colour scheme is essential so I need to develop new designs.

I played around with the design a little and tried out a simpler variant of the circle design bur I still dont think any of these are quite right and I have developed the idea as far as it can possibly go so I would like to try something new.

I decided to do something completely different and chose a much subtler font as this time I wanted the image part of the design to be the focal point. I decided to base it around an actual air plant as these are usually contained in circular glass bowls so I created a simplified version of one of these. This design allowed me to add colour as there are lots of empty spaces within the design that can be filled with colour. I think this is looking a lot more effective than the previous designs as it looks clean and simple but also flows nicely together and works with colour. I would like to develop it a little further to add more colour and maybe a bit more to the shape.

Initial Final Design



I made the air plant a little more detailed and I think it looks effective as it is still simple but really shows the companies product. I think it meets the brief as it is simple like the logo they provided but also very different giving the company a unique edge to it.

I incorporated the colour scheme into this design. I decided to do it very subtly as it didn't seem to blend well with the black text when the colours were used all over the shape. I think this subtle hint of colour is effective and makes the whole design a little more interesting and decorative.

Final Designs after feedback

After presenting my designs I was given a lot of feedback suggesting that I incorporate the colour scheme into more of my design as I had done it very subtly and people felt that if those were the colours requested by the brief they should feature strongly in the design. Taking this on board I tried out a couple more colour combinations.

I chose this combination in the end as all of the colours are incorporated but it isn't overpowering or clashing like some of the ones I tried above. These colours are not ones that work well together so it was hard to come up with a combination that looks appealing but I think this works nicely as there isn't too much of any of the colours. I decided to keep the text black as it was too much to colour that as well and made the design look a bit messy and confusing. I think this helps the image part stand out more and keeps it looking simple.

Final Designs

I placed my final designs on canvas bags to see how well they would work. I think all of the designs still look very bold and effective because of the bright colours used and the contrast against the bags.

Design #1

Design #2

Design #3

Development

Initial Ideas

First I created some initial ideas for the brief. I made three very different ones so that I had a variety and could develop them into three original designs. Doing these helped me to have something to work from when going on to the computer and gave me a basic starting point for each idea.

Idea #1

My first idea was to create a design based around the layout of the roads on a map. I thought this was a good way to showcase the whole area the shopping bag is based around and could also be useful for shoppers and tourists as the map is correct so they could also use it to help find their way.

First I found all of the roads on google maps and used the pen tool to outline the route connecting them. I made smaller grey lines within the black to make it clear as a road.

Next I filled in the background with different bright colours so that each area is separated out. This makes the map easier to understand as each street has its own area and also looks fun and attractive.

Next I added in the road names. I used a large decorative font so that it looked illustrated and hand drawn to fit in with the style of the map behind and chose sans serif so that it was clear and legible.

I then played around with the size of the font to integrate it better with the angles of the road.

Next I decided it looked quite basic and plain so I drew a variety of houses and other images to fill in the large empty spaces using the pen tool. I think these fit nicely with the hand drawn style of the rest of the map and make it look a lot more illustrated and interesting as well as meeting the brief in showing what the area has to offer.

This is my final design for my map idea. I think this looks effective because the it not only looks fun and eye catching but is usual multi purpose because the map is accurate so it can help tourists find their way around. I think it meets the clients brief because it reflects white ladies road and the area, and would suit the customer base of tourists because of the map and locals and students because of the fun colours and eye catching design.


Idea #2

For my second idea I decided to incorporate images of shops with a recycle logo to meet a different side of the brief where it was mentioned that bristol is to become europes green capital so I wanted to capture this in one of my designs by basing it around the recycle logo.

I chose a very simple style for the illustrations because I didn't want to overcomplicate things. I decided to place these along the inside of the logo so that the shape of the recycle logo would represent the road.

Next I tried out a variety of fonts for the name. I stuck to decorative and hand drawn style fonts so that they blended in nicely with the style of the illustration and didn't look out of place.

I also experimented with a mixture of different styles of font to try and get a contrast and make each word really stand out.

I also tried all script but I dont think this was very effective as it isn't bold enough and doesn't have enough impact therefore is drowned out by the rest of the design.

I think this font on its own is a little too bold and the stroke is very thick and it overpowers the rest of the design. Although I want it to stand out I still want it to be a little more delicate to match the illustration style.

Next I tried this font which is a mixture of thick and thin strokes, and I think this works perfectly because the thicker strokes give it a boldness and a big impact but the thinner strokes keep it looking delicate and it blends really nicely with the rest of the design.



Next I experimented with colours for the logo.

I think this green has a very high contrast against the black and doesnt blend in particularly well so if I were to use it I would have to change the colour of the houses.

I then tried colouring the houses and keeping the logo black but it really overpowers the soft colours of the houses, and I think they look more appealing coloured so I will need to change it to a softer colour to get it to blend nicely with them.

I tried grey to mimic the colour of a road but this again doesn't look nice against the colours of the houses and I think it needs something softer.

I added in white squares to make the logo represent a road. I put it all back in black and white but I think with this added addition of white it looks far too high contrast and something softer would look better.

I tried changing the font colour to break up the black and white but I think this needs to stay a bold high contrast colour as softening it takes the attention away from it and makes the design around it the focal point.

I then recoloured the houses and left the logo and text black. I think the black is still too much against the colours and something softer is needed.

I went for the green that I had used earlier and I think this looks much more effective because it doesn't have a stark contrast against the colours and blends in really nicely whilst keeping in with the green recycle theme and it makes the logo look a lot more like the original recycle logo so it should be more easily identifiable as that.

After receiving some feedback I tried placing the text inside the heart and I think this looks really effective because it frees up some white space in the middle making it look less cluttered. I think the black doesn't sit very nicely against the green and a lighter colour would have a softer and more appealing contrast.

I changed it to white and I think this looks a lot more effective as the contrast is a lot softer but still enough to make it stand out. Overall I think this design is effective because it captures the green recycle theme along with a small taster of the shops at white ladies road and I think the bright colours would really stand out on a bag.



Idea #3

For my final idea I wanted to use images that capture some of the shops found on white ladies road. I created graphics that represented a variety of the types of shops available on the road and layed them out in a grid.

I tried out thick stroked typefaces because the images are all quite bold and I wanted the typeface to be able to stand out and not get overshadowed.

I decided to go with this typeface in the end because it is very bold and thick stroked so really stands out on the design and definitely isn't overpowered by the images.


Next I played around with colour schemes.

First I tried a monochromatic colour scheme in shades of blue but I dont think this really captures the diverse spirit of white ladies road and a few different shades of colour mixed in would work better.

I added two more colours, one being green which helps get across the recycle theme. I think this colour scheme works really nicely because the colours all compliment each other and help add some fun and variety to the design and help capture the variety of stores. I think this design looks effective because it really captures the variety of stores on the road as well as being bold and fun.