OUGD603 Brief 3: Illustration Leeds Branding Evaluation

Evaluation

Over the second year at Uni, I found myself avoiding branding projects as I felt it was one of my weaker areas and I felt like I wanted to develop my other skill sets. This project, all be it a small one, made me see that I can do branding despite telling myself I couldn’t for so long. It was a small and quick project but it allowed me to see that I can work in different areas I am not 100% confident in plus it allowed me to work with clients who imputed their ideas across in the developmental stages of this project. While this project is just a logo for the time being, I spoke to the creators of Illustration Leeds who said that they would like to take it further after uni and would like me to work with them in creating the identity for a creative space that they hope to acquire.

With the help of a couple of my colleagues, we set up an Instagram as well as Twitter and Facebook pages that automatically post when anything is posted on the Instagram. We've set up a Google Drive and an email address for anyone on the course to submit work to.

In the week that it's been up there's been some surprising results including a good amount of followers, some retweets from the likes of the official procreate account, and a few Leeds based accounts have been in touch about collaborating.

OUGD603 Brief 3: Illustration Leeds Final Outcome

OUGD603 Brief 3: Illustration Leeds Branding Development

Development

From our meeting, I discussed my research and the colours used within similar Instagram accounts and asked if they had a particular colour palette in mind in which they said they wanted to have the logo either pink or yellow as they are quite calming colours. I went about creating some variations of this design but found I was making it more complicated than it needed to be. In the end, I went back to the original drawing, turned it into a vector and made the edges a lot smoother at the pencil tip to create a very simple but effective logo that uses a soft pink to emit a friendly atmosphere for the page. After taking it to the owners of the account, they were very pleased with the outcome and chose to use that logo.

OUGD603 Brief 3: Illustration Leeds Branding Initial Ideas

Initial Ideas

To develop some ideas for what could be used, I sat with the founders of the account, Kat Williams and Kyle Prior, and began to discuss what they would like and we all began to design some ideas. For a while, we were experimenting with the I and the L of Illustration and Leeds which ended up going nowhere. After creating quite a few variations of what we could do, I started doodling the pencils we were using to write with which then led to using the pencil tip to make an I. The idea behind it was to be able to show that it was an Illustration site just by looking at the logo while also having the letter I made up from a dot on the page and the tip of the pencil. After talking to the illustrators to see if they liked it, they were very pleased with it and asked me to continue with the idea.

OUGD603 Brief 3: Illustration Leeds Branding Research

Research

To gain some knowledge of similar social media sites, I looked into accounts such as

Illustration Artists.net,

Illustration Daily,

Weloveillustration

So Young magazine

Each one of these accounts showcases a wide variety of work similar to what Illustration Leeds aims to do. Looking at all the logos, they all have a very playful nature about them whilst at the same time showcasing that it was made by illustrators. Each one has very soft colours such as orange, white and green which should be incorporated into this project.

OUGD603 Brief 3: Illustration Leeds Branding Target Audience

Target Audience

As well as trying to get fellow course mates to be a part of this, they want to make sure it is not too serious whilst also looking professional.  They also want to gain the attention of creatives in the industry to showcase the work their course is producing.

OUGD603 Brief 3: Illustration Leeds Branding

Brief

After talking to a few members of illustration, something they brought to my attention was that they were planning on creating a social media presence that would showcase and celebrate the works of the illustration students from Leeds Art University. They felt like they needed to do this as they believed that they are not getting any exposure from their course. Their social media would be called Illustration Leeds. They asked me to create a logo for them with the potential to take it further once University is finished.