Connecting/Synthesizing/Transforming
Coursework for this month required research into various aspects and elements for successful logo design. For these reasons, David Airey’s book Logo Design Love and brand designer and strategist Jacob Cass’s article regarding logo design considerations were used to help guide the process.
When discussing the things a designer should consider when developing a logo for a new brand, Cass says that a successful logo “should be able to express the message, values, and vision a certain brand upholds” (Cass, 2019). He further urges one to think out of the box during the ideation process in an effort to conjure up concepts that make the logo “memorable and tied to your brand’s values and aesthetics” (Cass, 2019). David Airey states that to develop an iconic logo design, one should aim for distinction by creating a logo in such a way that “just its shape or outline gives it away” (Airey, 2014). Airey also urges designers to keep logos relevant to the brand they are representing while at the same time ensuring that it serves to differentiates the brand from its closest competitors (Airey, 2014).
Both Airey and Cass agree in regard to the importance of memorability and distinction to help make a logo successful. While Airey offers numerous suggestions for both visual and conceptual success, Cass is more concerned with conveying a logo’s greater purpose of communicating a brand’s core values.
When reviewing these sources for the purpose of developing a logo for BoxPark Sushi, it was decided that a successful solution should contain references to both the brand’s features and benefits. It was deemed important to communicate the brand values of tradition, sociability, and cultural illumination while also ensuring that sushi was present to keep the logo relevant. When applying these concepts, an abstract approach for the logo design was used in an effort to differentiate the brand from its nearest competitors which universally featured literal visual representations of sushi, chopsticks, and fish. The outcome features simple, relevant, and distinguishable visual elements that serve to communicate the brand’s core values while at the same time immediately setting the brand apart from other sushi restaurants in the Milwaukee area.
Problem Solving
A major design problem during this month’s coursework was ensuring that the choices and development of media assets for the rollout of BoxPark Sushi’s were specifically appropriate for the brand and its target audience.
Numerous options were available as possible solutions including print, environmental, on-air, and online assets.
Research into the residents of East Side neighborhood of Milwaukee, the area in which BoxPark is located, established that the brand’s target audience value social interaction and are heavy social media users. For this reason, it was decided to take advantage of the social media platforms Facebook and Instagram for asset development. As Alanoud Almubarak says, “social media platforms are vital to consumer-brands interaction” and engaging the audience in this way can increase brand intimacy, ultimately leading to an increase in their “willingness to spread positive word-of-mouth about the brand” (Almubarak, 2018). Further, an Instagram story was deemed an appropriate asset since for a brand roll-out since they have been shown to “increase brand awareness” (Donnelly, 2021) and are a successful way to generate traffic and send people to your website. Also, they offer advanced targeting features which allow BoxPark Sushi to display this asset to a specific audience that the brand knows it will resonate with. It also appeals to the interactive nature of the target user, allowing them to physically “swipe up” (Donnelly, 2021) at the end of the ad, which will take them directly to the brand’s landing page.
Innovative Thinking
During the logo development process, common industry procedures such as sketching, refining, and vectorizing were used.
Given that I am still relatively unfamiliar and unskilled in regard to drawing/sketching, Ray’s suggestions in the article How to Proceed with Sketching of Logo Design were used. This article revealed the importance of “knowing the key branding elements,” (Ray, 2018) ensuring that I kept the brand’s values and mission in mind from the beginning which avoided the urge to lean into clichés. Using this approach allowed me to develop numerous potential solutions for further review and development. The importance here is that none of the chosen solutions featured overt references to the brand’s features, but each one communicated the key benefits offered to the consumer. In this way, the thinking was innovative and didn’t copy the process used by the established brand competitors.
Acquiring Competencies
1. Logo Design Considerations – A designer who is completely familiar with a brand’s personality and goals will be more equipped to come up with design solutions that avoid cliché and communicate in a manner that speaks with innovation. This will differentiate a brand from its competition. (Occupational/Conceptual)
2. Brand vs. Logo – Brand encompasses all aspects of a company while a logo is simply a representation or symbol for the company. . A logo should resonate integral brand qualities determined through research. (Occupational/Conceptual)
3. Typography in Logo Design – Designers should consider the things that typeface categories such as serif, sans-serif, script, and others convey in their raw form and, if these characteristics are in line with what the logo needs to communicate, consider how altering various aspects of the typeface or the typeface itself will change this communication. (Occupational/Technical)
4. Social Media Marketing Strategy – Designers should develop different advertising strategies for each social media platform, ensuring that they are taking full advantage of the specific features offered by that platform. (Occupational/Conceptual)
5. Media Asset Production – A designer should perform target audience research to reveal what platforms and media type would be most appropriate. When the proper devices and platforms have been revealed, the media assets should maintain a visual consistency across all of them to ensure that users maintain familiarity with the brand and its messaging. (Occupational/Technical)
6. Restaurant Signage – Before embarking on signage design, a media designer should familiarize themselves with approaches by competing restaurants, understand the brand’s personality and core values, and establish the ultimate goals that need to be accomplished through the signage. (Occupational/Conceptual)
7. Post-Mortems – Post-project retrospectives should be done for any and all projects, even if only as a way to assess the current process a design company is using and gauging its effectiveness. They should include any and all employees involved in any part of the process. (Occupational/Conceptual)
8. Brand/Style Guides – Every aspect of the style guide should adhere to the established voice and tone. In this way, a style guide will maintain true consistency and empower its users to communicate across any medium in the way that is genuine and that the brand intended. (Occupational/Techincal)
9. Brand Story – Any designer looking to develop a brand story must understand the company’s mission, goals, history, and ultimately its reason for existing. These elements will provide the basis upon which the brand story should be built. (Occupational/Conceptual)
References
Airey, D. (2014). Logo design love (2nd ed.). https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/logo-design-love/9780133812589/
Almubarak, A. (2018). A conceptual analysis of brand intimacy on social media platforms. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 26(6), 463–478. Retrieved February 18, 2021, from web.a.ebscohost.com.oclc.fullsail.edu:81/ehost/detail/detail?vid=10&sid=25250650-1ee1-4ea5-89e8-b177401c1618%40sessionmgr4006&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d%23AN=131926781&db=bth
Cass, J. (2019, July 21). 10 top things to consider before designing a logo. Just Creative. Retrieved June 27, 2021, from https://justcreative.com/logo-design-tips/
Donnelly, G. (2021, January 23). Everything you need to know about instagram story ads. World Stream. Retrieved June 13, 2021, from https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2018/08/07/instagram-story-ads
Ray, H. (2018, March 10). How to proceed with sketching of logo design. DesignHill. Retrieved June 28, 2021, from https://www.designhill.com/design-blog/how-to-proceed-with-sketching-of-logo-design/