Self Branding. Joe Spud

When looking back at my personal identity they I designed in level 4, I instantly realised it didn't represent the style of design that I produce. I wanted my branding to be more personal, and actually relate to my style of design.

During the summer break I discovered that the coding aspect to the design was limiting and restricting the type of design to produce, in addition, to people who don't understand coding and don't actually know what certain aspects of coding are, makes my design irellivant as people would not understand the concept. In addition, after finishing the web brief, and realising that I didn't actually want to go down the web design route, I decided that a rebranding is necessary.

I would like to make my design cleaner and simpler. I would like to take unnecessary parts, such as the brackets, and replace them with a minimal, more professional design. I believe the logo at the moment looks quite childish, and doesn't give the feeling that it is for a professional designer.

As my work includes clean illustrations, a clean aesthetic and I need to consider these aspects when producing my new and improved personal identity.

One other thing I need to consider this time is the format my design will take, I will design a logo and brand myself, however I would like a way of presenting myself, my work, and my designs, then including my logo design to pull it all together, and produce a pack that can be given to people and studios, to show the extent of my work. This is why I need to make my logo more professional.

I will be making sure that my logo can work in different formats too as the "logostarter" brief from level 5 allowed me to understand the limitations of logos and will allow us of the logo on different formats, pushing my branding further. 

When producing my initial ideas, I was playing around with different aspects, and needed to answer some of my own questions before sketching up some final ideas.

Will my logo include an illustration? As logos can work with type alone, or have some sort of illustrations within. I needed to decide whether my design would be suitable having an illustration of some sort on the design. Looking back to the previous branding, and how I was tying to achieve the minimal look, I started to understand that it really wasn't branding me accurately. So I believe working with the logo and applying some sort of simple, clean illustration will push my branding further and actually represent me as a designer. In addition, When thinking about my branding and aspects to lead from this, I could end up using the illustrations to produce gifs, produce more interesting work from the illustrations, and use the illustration as a way for people to remember, and recognise the name that comes with the work. 

I also believe that I rushed into my design last year, producing work that I am not happy with, and wouldn't want to show to a professional design studio. So I have set myself a longer time frame so I can work with my sketches, and really refine my idea before taking it on screen and actually designing it. 

Once I have my logo and an idea as to where my design pack will take me, I believe a website should be created. A website will be an easy way to access all my work, without receiving a branding pack, it allows more people to view my work, and an easy way to compile all my work and with a simple link, where anyone can access it easily and quickly. 

Plan 

• Initial logo sketches, work with both type and illustrations.
• Refine ideas down, pick a few initial ideas that I am happy with and show friends and tutors to get some feedback. 
• Apply feedback and produce final design. 
• Think and produce ideas into my personal identity pack
• Have further feedback about the identity pack ideas
• Apply feedback and produce. 
• Start sketching and producing a website to compile all my work for people to access and see. 

I will give myself 1 week for the sketching of my logo and identity pack, then give myself a further week to produce my website mockups and ideas. Coding will be produced whenever I get spare time. I would like the website to be completed when I finish second year, as I will have my second year work to add to the webpage, then I will have a platform to place all my third year work onto, as I will definitely have no time to produce a website for myself in third year, so it saves time producing it before I start. It is important to make sure the concept is strong enough to run from second and third year, so I need to make sure that I am pleased with my design and that I get as much feedback as possible before putting it into practice.

Initial Ideas 

When I was first born, my dad gave me the nickname of Spud. This nickname has stuck with me for 21 years. So it is pretty unique to me because as I was growing up, and people still called me spud (reason being that I looked like a potato when I was born). So this is pretty unique to me and I believe I can incorporate this into my self branding.

I started playing about with sketches of a spud, including type within and using cut sections to allow room for type.

I started to think further than just logo design, I wanted to make sure this concept could be taken further, and actually have enough variation for me to use in other formats. I started to think about using some gifs or various items that could be displayed on a webpage, or in a more interesting format. 

I had an idea of having a rotating spud, with my type cut out, or applied to one side of the design, and having this on a rotating axle to make my type more interesting and catches the viewers attention.  

I also had the idea of having the spud peal, as it rotates, so the peelings will drop off, then underneath the peelings, my name (Joe Spud) will be revealed. 

I had an idea of having this as some sort of splash screen or initial screen before accessing my website. The spud will rotate, peeling, the name will be presented, then access to the website is granted. I also want to test around with the idea of the user controlling the direction of peel, so the user could go up and down the potato peeling and making the whole design more interactive and humorous.

I will also experiment with potato prints, see the how far this can take me. Potato prints could be considered quite childish but I can change and modify my design and idea and play around with this design to see if I could put a humorous spin on the potato print.

I believe this concept is much stronger than my previous design. I like the ideas that have been produced from my initial ideas and believe this concept can be pushed further and made more interesting. I am pleased where this design is going. 

I started to think about where this could be taken further and started to understand that I needed a identity pack. An idea that came to my head from this new concept is a way of presenting a packed of crisp? experimenting different ways of sending my designs, linked with various potatoes or aspect of spuds. This makes the whole pack humorous and allows a more exciting and personal way to brand myself.

After producing these initial sketches I believed my concept was present but the sketches with potatoes and type didnt appeal to me. I need a cleaner, modern aesthetic to brand myself as a designer. The whole brand needs to represent myself and show clients a preview into the way I design and the type of design I produce.

LOGO DEVELOPMENT

Playing around with the words JOE SPUD, I layed them out in various ways within my sketches, I didn't know how the composition would work and figuring out a way to aesthetically brand myself using this name became difficult.

I considered having a gridular format to display my type, allowing easy formats to apply my design, whether that would be a stamp or embossing. 

Aswell as a gridular format, I wanted to show size comparison. Even though my design name is JOE SPUD, I wanted to show that JOE was the main aspect to the name, with the spud aspect being a side part to the design that relates to me as a person. 

Testing out the gridular format I instantly took a disliking to it, as it looks far too boring for my liking. I decided to experiment further with a sized composition including variations to words to give a hierarchy within the logo. 

Below are the experiments with size and composition to give different variations to the way the type is read.

After playing around with the type I positioned a full stop to finish off my type and realised that this lead on nicely from the gradual size decrease the type order     JOE    SPUD     .

Applying a long extension to the E gives a framed aspect to the design that will frame it off the design. Applying a underline to the design which fits in with the full stop.

After experimenting digitally with the way the type would be placed and how the user would read my logo. I decided to hand draw one of my designs to finalise the design before digitally rendering it. Below is how I want my digital render to look, making the type more precise and accurate using illustrator to provide a cleaner design.

This provides a digital render that will be used for my promotional pack but also used for my logo and applying to any design I produce. I am unsure about the colour separation between my logo as this would make it more expensive to produce and limited to the aspects I can apply it on. I need to change the colour to a single colour to reduce expenses.

The little tab on the E will supply a exclamation mark. So when the two aspects of the design are formed together reads the word JOE SPUD! 

I decided to remove the 2 aspects of colour and change the colour to a brown to link with the brown that will be sprayed around the outside of my business card. This earthy tone provides a symbolic link to potatoes and the outside of skins. The paler tone to the inside of the business card will be provided by the stock.

This is my logotype for my personal branding with the final colour instead of separated colours. It gives a cleaner and simpler aesthetic instead of making the design look too busy.

After finishing my digital logo I can apply it to my promotion back and buisness cards to start promoting myself as a designer. 

BUSINESS CARD DEVELOPMENT

When producing my business card I wanted to give a subtle way of showing the spud aspect within my design. I had the idea to gather all my business card, grasp them together using a clamp and spray paint the outside of the business in a brown texture to give the potato effect, but keeping the plain, off white textured paper on the inside to give the brown potato skin, and then the potato textured within. 

I considered how I will design my contact side of the design. To give an aesthetic to the underside of the business card that includes the contact information. I had the idea of laying out the business card in a grid, then applying different potato prints to the design that are coloured with the same colours situated on the logo. But the potatoes will run over business cards and cause individual personal prints on the business cards that will make each business card unique. After experimenting with potato prints and producing an aesthetic thats interesting and relates to the branding.

Example prints. (more ink needed) 

I like the way that each business card will be individual as sections of potatoes will make personal prints for each business card. With the spray painted edges of the design to give the potato effect will bring the whole design together as a whole. 

I sketched up a final initial idea into how i would like the type and various design aspects placed on the business card, which made it easier and quicker when taking it on screen to design.

I then took this design and applied it to a document to produce my digital rendered version of the design. It provides me a file to take and print my business cards then all the hands on modifications can be completed.

The design looks simple as there are aspects that need to be completed after the print process. I will be spraying edges of the business cards brown and I need to apply potato prints on the top of the contact side of the business card to give the handmade aesthetic. 

PROMOTION BACK DEVELOPMENT 

After playing with ideas as to how I will store my promotion pack. I came up with the idea to store it in vegetable bags. This provides a mesh bag that will show my design through the mesh. The vegetable bag will provide enough protection for my promotion back but also gives the concept relating to the branding for JoeSpud.

I folded the pack over to see how it would look when it was the correct size, as the pack was far to big for my A4 style publication. The A4 Page shows where the pack will be placed and how my design can be seen through the design. I need to trim up the vegetable bag to fit my design.

Once trimming my design, I need to iron the edges of the vegetable bag to seal the design and make sure that the pack can't fall out. I have tested ironing the sides to make sure they seal the design.

I experimented with starch prints by pressing potatoes onto the page and leaving them to dry. The texture provided allows an imprint of the potato but also provides a texture imprint. I will do this with some screenprint ink on my business cards and promotion back to give continuity and an interesting aesthetic. 

I designed the front page of my promotion pack. I wanted to keep the design quite simple but provide an interesting aesthetic that will catch peoples attention. The coloured shapes on the paper gives an example to the different shapes and colours that will be provided from the potato. Making each promotion back individual for a client.

Edible Business Card Experiment

I had the idea to create edible business cards. Making thin chips, applying my type or aspects of my logo to see whether a chip or "smack" (sliced fat chip) and printing onto it using food colourings allowed me to experiment with different type within food.

Making sure they are thin allows cooking time to vary from 10-15 minutes. 

I experimented with the chips and seasonings at first to see if they would taste nice and work. They proved successful and tasty so I decided to try these again but print onto them.

I created a print with a potato and tested them out on paper to start. The J proved successful and allows me to take this print and apply it to different formats.

Applying the print to potato slices and using food colouring allows the potato to still be edible yet giving a J cooked within the type. 

Before cooking...

After cooking...

The J proved successful when cooking the chip, it ended up being tasty. 

The potato business card is a good idea in theory however proves to be an inconvenience as they will have a short time period before going off and unedible. It could be used for promotional pictures which I intend to produce for pictures for my website and other items.

WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT

I have produced several ideas for my website. I am purchasing the domain www.JoeSpud.com to give a professional website, and one I can code myself to provide an interesting website to advertise myself and give a client a platform to view my work easily. Each idea is quite conceptual linking with the whole "spud" theme.

My website ideas are as follows: 

Sliced Potato

The sliced potato will be the main aspect to the  web page, keeping it simple and to the point. The slices of the potato will be the different links to the website allowing a simple way to navigate the sight and shows simply where to click. There will be other pages such as about, sample work, and contact details.

Potato Formats

I had the idea of producing a one page website, that will go through different aspects a potato can produce, this will link with my design skills as there are a range of outcomes that can be produced but then each section of potato can be a link to the certain aspect of the sight. 

Rotatory potato

Using a rotating potato gives a slightly humorous design to the website and makes it interesting and inviting. As the potato rotates, different sections will appear within the potato to allow selection to the different aspects of the website. There will also be visible links at the side of the page for easy selection. I like the comedy value of the rotating potato.

Potato Texture

I thought about having a whole textured image as the webpage, with the same aspect of the rotating potato and using aspects of the potato texture and highlighting them to allow a clear notification of the different sections of the website and where the user should click. I like this idea but due to the fact I haven't really used a strong potato relation within my concept so the design might seem out of place using a full page spread of a potato texture. 

Potato Prints 

Using some of the prints that have been used on my business card, I will take the different aspects of my business cards and apply them onto my website. A more simple approach to display my work. 

Vegetable bag

I decided to play with the idea of using a vegetable bag texture that will relate to my promotion back, but also having different potato prints in the background to relate to my business cards, the potato aspects may be moved and altered to give a more interesting design. The website links will be in a grid in the top left of the webpage making it easy to select and navigate around the website. 

Stringed potato

Another slightly humorous website which will include hanging potatoes that will be the link to each section of the website, to make them a challenge and more interesting I might make them bounce or move to make it a challenge to click.