This task was about understanding the elements and principles of design. For my redesign of the Garden Window Cafe, I took this into account and will explain my process so far. I implanted the design into the menu and had a play around to match it to my logo to create a new visual identity.

Emphasis – To me the emphasis of the logo is the rose cup, being a contrasting colour makes it stand out.

Rhythm and Repetition – Using the same green in the logo and typography creates a uniformed image. Also matching the font with the sketchy style ties it in together.

Balance – I think this needs a little improvement as to me the balance is slightly off.

My next step was to see how the logo worked with the menu design. Below I will upload the original and redesign and compare them both.

The reason why I chose to redesign the menu was personally I found it difficult to read, so to overcome this I chose a lighter green to emphasise the text better. Giving it a brighter colour made it look more fun to me and with the fade going down the page creates depth. I changed the logo to match the colour of the text to blend it in better giving it better rhythm. The red berries are the same colour as the rose cup again to blend the logo with the menu. The logo stands out at the top making it the first thing you see and having an impact. This could be because of the negative apace around it.

This week we had to look at logo design and what makes up a good logo. From my research I found that simple designs were usually the most effective, probably due to them being easier to remember. I started off my research on Pinterest and created a board of logos and artistic versions of logos.

https://pin.it/3wvDmSL

Ill start off by discussing “Amazon”, I like this logo because it shows that Amazon has everything from A – Z also incorporating a smile in the image is a clever design.

“Puma” is one of my favourite logos as it is very distinctive, to me it shows that the company will leap at the opportunity to try new things. Being a big cat known for their agility makes it easy to identify this as a sports and active brand.

Then there is the classic Coca Cola logo, undoubtedly one of the most famous logos there is yet one of the most complex to recreate. It is very unique and the red is very recognisable. For me what I like about the logo is the scripture font, it gives the company a touch of class and is a nod to its older history.

For my own logo after some feedback I decided to make the typography clearer to read by giving the text a darker border. I also roughened the edges of the logo to blend it better into the typography.

This week I had to carry on working on restyling a brand identity. I started playing around with fonts. I have narrowed it down to five and here i will discuss pros and cons of each. Once satisfied on a font I will play around with FX to see what works best with my redesign.

Pros for this font: Easy to read, the text look like window frames, classical look.

Cons for this font: Not sure it fits the theme.

Pros for this font: easy to read, Fits well with logo

Cons for this font: basic, very commonly used

Pros for this font: Different, easy to read, fits theme well.

Cons for this font: clashes with the logo, draws attention away.

Pros for this font: easy to read, chalkboard style matches cafe.

Cons for this font: Might be hard to tweek, hard to find a contrast font.

Pros for this font: easy to read, unique look, fits theme well

Cons for this font: used often, not unique.

Out of the 5 fonts, I personally like number 4 because of how well it fits the theme. I would however need to adjust the logo so it blends better with the text. Play around with hues, edges and colour. As for the text I will play around with colour, fx, and line. The original logo has a very scripted text which looks great. If I cant make any of these fonts work i’ll download some different ones and see what I can create.

Welcome to my blog, the first task was to create a new visual identity for an existing company. I started off by researching various visual identities, after struggling to find inspiration via Pinterest I took a walk around my local area to see if that sparked inspiration. After about an hour I had a better understanding of what was required, and drew inspiration from various shops and cafes. I jumped back on Pinterest and started finding ideas and designs I liked. I created a new board and decided to re-visualise a local Cafe called “Garden Window Cafe”.

Garden Window Cafe.

http://www.thegardenwindow.nz/

Although I feel they have a very good and appealing visual identity, their website and menus gave me plenty of inspiration to re-visualise. I liked the colour scheme and the logo design, however I feel the menu font needed a change and a new look to suit.

Going forward in the next few days I will be drawing with pen and paper to come up with ideas using a thumbnail sketch. The results will be posted below once satisfied with my board.