Studio Brief 3 - Logo Development

Studio Brief 3 - Collaborative Practise - Leeds Library Exhibition Branding 

Logo Development

We decided to all work on the logo together as we felt this would be the main aesthetic that the subsequent collateral would adhere to. We chose to work individually to start creating our own rough sketches which we then brought together to discuss and improve in a group critique. I feel this worked well as it allowed us to have a range of logo ideas that all had different thought processes behind them. It also allowed up to all contribute to the logo design so it was a truly collaborative design. We decided to take these ideas home to further develop them individually and chose to have a logo critique the next day where we would choose the logo direction we wanted to finalise into our logo design. 

A reoccurring theme within all our logo designs was using the numbers 45 we felt this worked well as it was simple enough to form a distinct logo and had lots of opportunity to experiment with the alignment, weight and shoes the numbers could make. We started experimenting with angles however felt this gave too much of a maths vibe which could distract from the actual exhibition, we wanted the logo to be bold and simple, it was important distinct and our concept is relatively ambitious and not the typical response to this brief. 

We decided to work in mainly monotone at this stage as we felt we could work out the colour scheme later in the design process, we discussed the developed designs and initially found it difficult to find a design we all felt represented the concept, we chose to develop Harriets initial design that used negative space to create a slash "/" between the 4 and 5 showing the combined nature of the event exhibiting level 4/5 degree students work. Once we had established this direction we wanted to take the logo we all individually worked on tweaking the logo to make it the strongest design possible we constantly referred back to each other for feedback and to review the design. 

We added a box around the outside of the design to attract the audience's eye into the logo, we also felt this looked more striking and from a contextual perspective it links to the exhibition theme as it looks as though the logo is being framed, typical of exhibition iconography. We further experimented with the alignment of the text using the slash to reinforce the combined nature of the exhibition, between level 4 and 5 students work. We chose a bold sans-serif typeface as we felt this was contemporary and reflected the type of exhibition concept we wanted to produce. The strong weight of the typeface (montserrat) meant it had high impact and would catch the eye of an audience, This also worked well with the deign as the typeface complimented the sharp angles and negative space within the design and adjusted the weight of the box to complement the typeface. Finally we experimented with adding the degree sign into the design however ultimately decided against this as we felt it took the simplicity away from the design and added connotations of maths. 

Final Logo Design 

This was our final logo design, I was very happy with the final outcome as from talking to the rest of the group I feel the logo collectively represents the type of aesthetic we wanted our concept proposal to represent. I feel the logo is strong, simple, bold and contemporary which are all beneficial qualities of logo design as I feel this will make our logo stand out and be recognisable. It is also well design with particular detail paid to the typography  alignment, weight and composition so I feel this logo will appeal to the target audience for the exhibition which will be predominantly designers and people interested in visual culture. I feel this logo would work well as the the face of the exhibition as it is fairly neutral so will not contrast the students work. 

We have decided to keep the logo monotone as we feel this looks strong and sophisticated. It will also aid the reproduction of the logo as it can be easily printed on black and white and will look equally effective when reduced in size for example on a catalogue or letterhead etc. We will then look at interdicting a bright burst of colour within the rest of our designs to make the our concept and collateral more eye-catching, contemporary and aesthetically pleasing.