logo

Throughout my brief, I was required to develop corporate branding for a cake shop in London called, ‘Eat Cake’, which must include the logo, business card, compliments slip, bags, uniform, serviettes, and shop signage and frontage. The main aims were to make the designs look contemporary as well as visually communicating the healthy approach to their company.

I have met the brief because I have experimented with colours in order to make the company feel organic as well as desirable; I used orange to trigger hunger from the consume and to symbolise energy, and a peppermint green in order to communicate the company’s healthy approach and to gain a fresh and vibrant look from the design. I like the combination of colour because they are both natural and they create a strong contrast that grabs the consumer’s attention; the combination brings out the saturation of the pigments and makes the design as a whole feel dynamic. I started thinking about colour after researching the logo, ‘House of Green’ designed by kami Piatkowski because I liked how he uses colour to symbolise what the company stands for and how colour can be used to create a modern and contemporary appearance, which was his main aim because his client wanted to communicate with modern people; the contrasting colour s make the design stand out as bold and it emphases the clean edges within the design. I created a palette filled with all the natural colours I had available to me and I started limiting my palette based on what the colours symbolise and what mood is created when combining each colour with another.

Another graphic designer that inspired my work was Mario De Meyer because I liked how he separates colour, making the design feel spacious and contemporary. I also like his design because of the rhythm being used and how each colour and curve reoccurs in the design, creating a sense of movement and flow within the typographic design. I experimented with different ways of presenting the shape of my logo and concluded that the colours should be vertical and avoid being connected with another shape or colour; it creates simplicity and the vertical lines direct the viewer towards the writing; the lines are closing in on each other, and the viewer’s eye moves toward the bottom of the logo.

The typography was inspired by the ‘Clipper tea’ company designed by Big Fish, which was my first piece of research; I liked the design as a whole, the way they branded their product ad combined simple shapes with simple typography, creating unity ad a harmonious combination. At the start of my project, I liked the idea of showing my ingredients in order to gain trust from the consumer and to promote the client’s natural ingredients, however, as I progressed through this project, I directed my attention towards creating imagery with the company’s initials. After designing the symbol, I still wanted to use the research I had collected from the start, so I used the Clipper tea typography with my new symbol and explored different compositions. I decided to use the typography used for the company’s slogan because I found that the main typeface was too artificial and mass produced. The other typeface makes the consumer feel more welcome and it is harmonious with the geometric shapes within the symbol. I decided to change the typeface slightly in order to make it my own as well as making the design feel more solid and bold, allowing the consumer to interact with the rand more; I took away the spaces in the letter ‘A’, which was very convenient for me when I was painting my brand because I didn’t need to worry about using a smaller brush and it is less time consuming.

The symbol was inspired by the ‘Breaze’ logo designed by Reynolds and Reyner. I liked the minimalistic style of their design because it attracts modern consumers and appears clean and contemporary when contrasting colours are used with the design. I also liked the way they made their typography illustrative by transforming them into meaningful imagery that communicates what the brand is and what ideas they are trying to promote to the consumer. I experimented with the initials of ‘Eat Cake’ in order to create a contemporary symbol, and I managed to produce a cupcake using these initials. I like this design because it is creative, simple and subtle; when you look at the design, the consumer doesn’t notice the typography used to produce the imagery.

After choosing my final design, I experimented with different materials in order to gain an understanding of texture and whether they would be appropriate for the company. I used mediums such as oil and soft pastel, watercolour paint and pencil, felt-tip pen, fine liner, illustrator, ink, and acrylic paint. I decided to produce my final design using acrylic paint because it has a soft effect on the design, making it feel welcoming and friendly, and it allowed me to gain more control over the colour pigments. However, as I was digitalising my design on Photoshop, I found that the design didn’t look contemporary with a textured background, so I erased the background and tidied up the edges of my logo.

Once my project was coming towards an end, I realised that the logo needed a background in order to show variation on my design and so the uniforms are not white; a white uniform is inconvenient for staff members to keep clean, especially when working in a cake industry. So I researched corporate branding, which lead me on to the ‘PilyQ’ logo designed by Jeet Patel because I liked the simplicity of the design and the use of rhythm in the background; it relates a sense of direction and it suits my logo’s symmetric and geometric shapes. This pattern also reminded me of old fashioned bakeries, which inspired me to use the same pattern with my colours; the design is still contemporary, however, the background brings sense of history, making the design feel friendly and traditional, which suits the company’s homemade products. Design trends are reverting back to specific periods in history, making them retro, fun and full of colour. I like this design because it has a sense of rhythm, direction, contrast and unity, and the simple yet retro style attracts younger consumers, which is the main target market that is ideal because they are a new generation that needs to consider their health, and they are of an age where they are not afraid of treating themselves to desirable foods.

The Patisserie Valerie cake company was a form of primary and secondary research. I used the packaging in order to overlay with my own design on Photoshop. I decided to research this company because there are limited shops that only sell cakes and I wanted to observe how they display their brand, which gave me ideas for my own work. I over-layered their staff uniform on Photoshop using my own design, which was a secondary image because I was very hesitant on asking the staff member to stop doing their work in order to have their photo taken. However, if I did have a bit more confidence, my design would have been less pixelated.

I think I should have done more annotation and reflect more on my work because I found that I didn’t have enough time to do so. Doing more annotation would have allowed me to feel more in control of my work and it would have allowed me to make faster decisions when it came to my decision making. I also think I should have explored illustrator in order to strengthen my software skills because it would have enabled me to create imagery that is less pixelated.

I found digitalising my designs were successful because I was able to refer back to my Photoshop workshop and make my designs blend in to photos; making the design settle into the photos enabled me to see what my design would look like in the real world without physically designing it, which is one cost effective way of designing brands. I was also pleased that I was able to improve my logo as I was digitalising my logo because it enabled me to use my problem solving skills and think of an alternative way of presenting my logo. Taking away the texture in the background also enabled me to make the design clean and contemporary, and it places more emphasis on the texture used on the logo.

In order to improve, I would make the compliments slip longer in width because there isn’t enough space in the centre, and doing this would balance the weight of the layout further as well as giving the consumer enough space to comfortably move their eyes in a circular direction. I also think I should have ventured out in search for more cafes in order to get primary imagery of shop frontages, which would have allowed me to apply my design to my own imagery; it would be less pixelated, enabling me to print out my design on a larger scale.

In conclusion, my understanding of a logo has improved and I now know the correct way of approaching a project involving identity; I understand how to interpret what the client is trying to communicate and what colours to use in order to make a design feel desirable and organic. Additionally, my knowledge on Photoshop has improved, which will enable me to apply my designs to packaging, uniforms and sop frontages in my next identity projects. At first I struggled with how to approach this project, however, during the second week, I found that all my ideas changed and I was in the right mind set to create a meaningful piece of work. And I am pleased with my work and I am pleased that I was able to work out how to combine two contrasting elements ‘ natural and desirable’ in my design.

 

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