Thursday 18 May 2017

OUGD505: Initial Branding in Situ

Going around Leeds College of Art seeing how the current range looks in setting. The use of black as a primary colour identifier suggests a timeless ambiguity, as well as feedback stating it looked more professional and trustworthy with the clean branding. Introducing hand icons within the design allowed me to be playful and see how this could integrate within public space. The image on the left below shows how the viewer could go in either direction, and find a creative of some kind to collaborate with. The overwhelming darkness from a far stands out as bold and serious, yet when introducing the playful logo and icons then the meaning is transformed again (recapping on the levels aspect of UX in some way).



By recapping on my goal of increasing collaboration, tapping into the pre known channels to promote the website is essential, possibly creating a hashtag to go on Instagram. When wandering around uni observing what promotions caught peoples eyes, I noticed a hidden corner within the Student Union which contained multicoloured balloons and silver shimmery backdrops. It stroke me as fascinating that this spontaneously creative space had popped up within LCA, and is quirky and creative itself. By utilising the space and functionality of Leeds College of Art, we can engage the target audience more, as they also engage with LCA on an often daily basis. This emphasises the commonalities, encouraging brining people together. 



A social media hashtag (mainly for Instagram) could feature #CollabMe, with a student looking for a collaborator, holding a slip of paper saying who'm they're looking for. This would create a multi-platform distribution for the platform, promoting the website. By giving the control to the user of where to post it, with the association of Collab.com, the breadth of interaction is maximised and hopefully increased searches.


The 'Seeking a' A5 cards would be printed and placed near the area in uni. To save on cost for Precision Printing and white ink, these can be screen printed on black 220 gsm card, easily purchased for relatively inexpensive. However, by having black stock regular pens will not show up or work on this surface, meaning a pot of branded Collab white felt pens would come with black card templates. This could all be distributed to a university in a CollabPack (tote, cards, white pens, stickers, posters).

I posted them around uni to the primary target audience- this could be extended to posters around highly populated student area's, such as Hyde Park (or the cubes we see around Leeds); alternatively places where creatives are situated. Places like Belgrave Hall & Canteen, Colours May Vary, Village Bookstore all have a wide variety of creative clientele, ranging in specialisms with a common interest in design- and sharing design due to the situation of appraisal within some of the shop settings.


Distributing through different departments, as well as sticker mock ups easily scattered in smaller places. In many cases the tone of voice of Collab with the hand icons is much lighter than some of the others, with the 'SWAP/SHOP' initially grabbing my attention within this image, and then over towards the telescope lady in the bottom right and over to Collab. The introduction of the hands comes off playful and engaging, almost acknowledging the work around it in a suggestive positive feature, highlighting people right there you could potentially collaborate with.




When observing how people interact with the spaces around uni, it is clear that Plug Sockets are something of key importance and engagement- the same with most public spaces today. By highlighting this as a feature of significance we can tactically place branding to target the audience further- often if they need a charger, they are charging a computer or phone, suggesting professional or student of some kind. This information is also useful to keep in mind if pushing the brief further, expanding as a larger network in the future.

 Looking at the spaces and seeing how the range/distribution are intertwined is really interesting to see, as it is clear for some aspects I could go back and redesign to possibly be brighter and look more 'creative'. However, the overall aesthetic of the brand is currently playfully serious, something which is perfectly in keeping with the intended tone of voice.

No comments:

Post a Comment