Research and Analysis

The beginning of my research started off by looking up different corporate businesses and organizations and getting used to how these identities can look. I got no inspiration from this and found that most of these businesses were huge brands or already have a good identity. I then researched some corporate identities that were rural to me, which fired up some more possibilities of identities.

The organization identity that I have chosen to rebrand is Golden Bay Museum. When thinking about this organization there is no strong visual identity that comes to mind, they also do not have a very clear logo. Which is why I want to rebrand this identity.

This museum organization provides research and education/entertainment services to the community, their mission is to preserve and interpret the history of Golden Bay. They also promote appreciation and enhanced understanding of Golden Bay’s cultural heritage for the enjoyment, education and enrichment of both the wider community and visitors. The Golden Bay Museum are very good at preserving Golden Bay history, researching for people and enhancing more knowledge of the history of Golden Bay to the community.

I researched some other museums that are located pretty close to the GB Museum, and one of their main competitors is Nelson Provincial Museum. These organizations are quite similarly represented mainly though their logo, which have both incorporated a symbol of a black coloured koru (shown below). I also learnt through research that both of these logos have been designed by the same person which explains the similarity. I would have to say overall that the identity of Nelson Provincial Museum is more updated and modern looking compared to the GB Museum which makes their identity more memorable, I also like how simple looking theirs looks. Another competition that GB Museum has is the Marlborough museum. Their logo is very simple as well with a sans serif front, when next to the Nelson museum they look very similar. I like how they designed the last “M” to create a heart shape.

I don’t think that GB Museum has a main target group, instead their target group is open and aimed at anyone of all age groups who wants to learn about the cultural heritage of Golden Bay.

The Golden Bay Museum is very unique as it is the only museum in Golden Bay, they also get to share the very special and unique story of how GB was the first place where there was European and Maori interaction. The message they should convey is that its their mission to preserve and interpret the history of Golden Bay.

The identity would be visible on websites, Facebook, signage and promotional material. The atmosphere that I will be aiming for is modern, with cultural aspects of Golden Bay.

Mood Board for Golden Bay Museum

Random Pairings Exercise

Overall I think this was a fun and helpful exercise. When I started this exercise I was stuck with ideas for my project, some of the word combinations I got didn’t trigger any ideas or concepts. Once I got a word connection that triggered any sort of idea, I was on a roll from there and more ideas kept on coming to mind. I think this exercise is a good way to get your creative mind flowing and then apply it to the work that you’re doing. In the end most of the ideas and concepts I came up with are very simple, but it is interesting to see how only two words can trigger any sort of idea.

Rough sketches and brainstorming for my Organization Identity

Here are some very rough and simple thumbnail sketches I have done for the Golden Bay Museum rebrand. I will continue to make more sketches and ideas as I am not very happy with them so far. Just getting any ideas I have so far onto paper.

GB Museum Design Focus

After doing some research about the GB Museum I found and wrote down some main focus words that represent the Museum and will help convey their message for the design. I thought that maybe doing this will spark some ideas for the identity.

• Preserve, interpret
• Appreciate, cultural heritage
• Education, enrichment
• Research, knowledge
• Entertainment, history
• Open target audience

Above are some of the fonts that I liked and saved for inspiration. As well as three different colour scheme ideas I came up with, I chose the first colour scheme based on the meaning behind the colours. Golden Bay Museum look after information about history and want to educate the community, I did some research and found that light blue or blue colours are known to represent education, so I want to try and use it in my design. Orange represents joy, creativity, fascination, freedom and encouragement, I think that these words represent the museum well. Orange is also a very bright colour which can stand out and be more recognizable. I also thought to add some natural colours to give it that history/old feel.

I then played around with the (square) logo design and came up with a few new looking ones, incorporating the hills of Golden Bay, but I wasn’t too sure If I was happy with how they came out, they looked a bit to crowded. I loved how the (M) looked by its self just with the hills and square shape but obviously I needed to show that is was called GOLDEN BAY museum. So I chose not to go with this design.

The rule of thirds is a compositional guide that breaks down (usually an image) into thirds both horizontally and vertically, so you have nine sections. By positioning key elements along the gridlines you will have a better composition. The gridlines help to position essential compositional elements.

The first person to cite and name the rule of thirds was an 18th century painter and writer named John Thomas Smith, In his book Remarks on Rural Scenery, John Smith quotes a 1783 piece of work by Sir Joshua Reynolds (an English painter), in which he discusses the balance of dark and light in a painting. John Smith expanded on this idea creating The Rule Of Thirds. The rule posits that a visual composition is most pleasing to the eye when its elements relate to an imaginary set of lines that divide the frame into equal thirds, both horizontally and vertically. 

For example if you were to shoot a landscape or sunset image, like in the picture below you would place the horizon line either along the top or bottom gridline. The tree in this image has been placed within the middle and right vertical gridline, making the composition asymmetrical. In identity design this is another way at looking at the layout of a design, like a webpage, menu, or business card. Or when designing a Iconic mark you could place the gird overlay of thirds over the space used for the design to help with the composition.

The rule of thirds also have four power points at the center of each gridline intersection, shown below.

This is where you position the main points and elements such as a head when shooting portrait or a flower for more still life images, this makes the composition feel more centered.

For Kotare Sands- Restaurant, bar and accommodation

After making some rough sketches and ideas for the restyle, I then moved on to refining them down to a few that I think might work for the identity.

My next step in the redesign process will be to play around with different fonts on Illustrator and attempt to customize them. I will then try to design the logomark of the bird on Illustrator and see how it looks with the text.

when finding a font I like I mucked around with it and added more white space to the R, A’s and D’s. I thought that the white space on the “R” looked like the beak of the kotare bird.

I then moved on to creating and designing the final products and the visual identity for each one, making sure that they all are cohesive and relate to each other.

Welcome to my graphic design blog,

To start off the first week I had to research and look for examples of visual identities which appealed to me. I searched through Pinterest and found a random array of different brands and visual identities that inspired me in many ways, either being the typography, colour scheme or layout etc.

I then thought hard about what visual identity I wanted to have a go at restyling. I initially thought about beauty product brands or some other popular identities, in the end I landed on Pepsi as the brand I wanted to restyle. Through some research I found that many people are not satisfied with how their new logo looks, so I wanted to take on that challenge and improve their visual identity.

Visual Identity Inspiration:

Research For Visual Identity Restyling:

Changing Visual Identity:

Pepsi are a very iconic and huge brand that has changed their visual identity multiple times over many years, but I just don’t think that they have nailed there logo and identity yet. I like the bold blue colour they use as it is very recognizable to their identity, I also like the circle aspect and want to incorporate that into the new design. I think that the font needs to be changed and overall needs to be more bolder and exciting.

Thumbnail Sketches:

Visual Identity Restyling #2

After getting some feedback on the pervious identity I chose (Pepsi), I decided to rethink and research a new visual identity to restyle. I might have been to ambitious to restyle Pepsi as my first project because of how huge the brand is. I began researching again for a more local and smaller identity that I am more familiar with. I thought about the company’s and restaurants that are around me and decided on a local restaurant called “Kotare Sands.”

I think that changing the choice of my brand was a smart idea, I think that this restaurants identity has potential to be updated and restyled.

Pinterest Board Of My New Restyling Brand:

https://www.pinterest.ca/designlaur/identity-restyling-2/

I decided to change to “Kotare Sands”. This visual identity is a restaurant, bar and accommodation destination that sits right next to a beach. They have many products and items that need to represent their visual identity in some way eg. menus, outdoor signs, websites, business cards. I believe their main weakness has to be the colour scheme and photograph of the sand, its a bit to literal to the name. The bold and outlined text is a bit outdated. I do think how the Kotare bird is sitting on the “K” like a powerline is a cool concept, as these birds are usually found sitting around on things like this.

On their website they didn’t have anything about the meaning behind their logo and name, so I decided to do some research myself. “Kotare” is the Maori word for Kingfisher, it’s popular to find them around the area of this restaurant. I gathered that that they used the word “sands” to represent the beach that it is located next to. A Polynesian legend believes that Kotare “the bird” are to have power of the ocean and waves which is significant again to the location.

Thumbnail Sketches

Brands Around Me:

A “Good Logo” Examples:

For this week 3 activity I had to collect examples of logos that show the five characteristics of a good logo, which are simple, distinctive, versatile, appropriate and timeless. From my research on Pinterest I will pick a few logos and explain how they are a good logo.

I think that if anyone saw just the letter mark of “CK” they could tell what the brand name is, and that is because of how distinctive this is and what helps the brand to be recognized by the public. Thy simple typography and black text give the logo a simple feeling. Is a versatile brand that can be on many products.

Visual Analysis Of A Visual Identity:

Elements and Principles Of Design:

Today I had to find examples of each of the elements and principles of design, related to logos and identities.

Typography Board:

Here are some typography related pins.