Brief 4 - Final logo

After speaking to people on the course and having a chat with Andy, I decided to go with the following as the final logo for the Warrington Museum rebrand. I chose it predominantly due to the simplicity of the mark and how it can be easily manipulated and adapted. The bars were derived from podiums and greek pillars but also creates an abstract monogram of 'WM'. The font has unique characteristics which I think adds to the character but also balances well with the simplicity of the mark

Brief 3 - Chosen concept

Our chosen concept is... (European) Street signs

Brief 2 - Content

Although I don't start this brief until after reading week, I thought it was essential I started to explore potential content for the magazine itself. Obviously there's a lot to collate between now and then but I've managed to secure some reviews and features from some people.

My sister is fanatic about independent film and she has offered to write a few film reviews as well as a couple of features on film soundtracks. Luke on the course has said he'll write a couple of reviews too and I will be constantly on the look out for other collaborators.

Based on existing film magazines, I began to generate an extensive list of written content:

Ideas for features / articles / reviews:

- Individual crew members and what their job entails
- Specific directors
- Film soundtracks
- Horror issue? Halloween? Monthly theme?
- Books into films
- Adapted screenplays
- Cinematography
- Art and design — requests? Olly Moss?
- Upcoming DVD releases
- Upcoming cinema releases
- London Film Festival
- Foreign releases
- Television programmes?
- Film trivia
- Wilhelm scream (relates to horror genre)

Brief 4 - More development

I printed off all the marks to see how they'd appear in print. I selected what seemed to be the most prominent and ones that provided a solution to the original problem outlined in the brief — that the current brand is bland and needs a contemporary update.

Brief 4 - Mark development

After the crit with Andy, I decided to explore other design ideas. I tried to avoid more literal interpretations and make the mark more abstract. Andy suggested to look at the idea of discovery so I incorporated some 3D elements (shadows) to some of the marks to give it more depth.

Tutorial with Andy

The tutorial with Andy was extremely helpful. I think I was lacking direction but just talking through my briefs helped give them clarity. The majority of the work I took was for the Warrington Museum brief as I hope to have this done prior to reading week.

Museum

Throughout this week, I have been working on an identity for the musem which would subsequently be applied to a range of promotional materials (below). The inspiration behind it came from Greek architecture, particularly stone pillars. Although the brand mark was liked, Andy suggested that I could develop the quick image I drew to highlight this reference as it tied in nicely with the fact I wanted to target the museum primarily towards children through educational initiatives — a hand drawn, childlike aesthetic.

He said to treat the branding project like a story / journey and get into the mindset of a visitor to the museum and how they would react to any materials I create. There should be some sort of unified concept to tie the branding and any promotional materials together. I could do a simple mark and leave it as it is but to adapt and extend the project into a fully comprehensive brand, I should really investigate how a visitor interacts with it. Andy suggested treating it like a discovery as this is ultimately what a museum is about — this in turn makes it more engaging, especially for children.

It was an eye opening insight and something I will definitely work on. Looking back at the mark, it does seem fairly clinical and maybe not so engaging with a younger audience — I suppose this could change with the way I adapt the mark through different means but I will definitely look at developing the identity.


National Rail

- Look at customer touch points in terms of way finding and signage
- Create a focused list of deliverables as a potential list is extensive
- Again, treat it like a story / journey

Film magazine (Reel)

- Liked initial logo concepts (currently very basic so these will develop)
- Start sourcing collaborators for content
- Find articles online and contact the writer, see if they don't mind being featured
- Look at film remakes / origins for more content

Form & Writing

- Could work more on the name, is it too literal? Possibly look at changing the second of the pair of words as Form and writing doesn't really roll off the tongue — maybe Form & Function?
- Explore how the research / investigation / Form aspect of the project interacts and works with the application / fonts / Writing aspect
- Fontsmith 10 year anniversary specimen publications

Notes

As all of my briefs are branding projects, Andy gave me a link to Blanka — an online archive and collection of original and limited edition design, posters and publications. One of the things they sell are brand guidelines for companies such as First Direction, for example which provide a great insight into the story behind a brand. He also said to look at Pentagram and other major branding studios and have a look at the marks they produce and the background behind it.

Brief 4 - Final identity?

The final (maybe) mark is based on the form of Greek pillars but also has a subtle reference to a frame - creating a combining of both the museum and the art gallery. I have adapted the mark into individual identities for each of the exhibitions / collections and will potentially adapt these into signage and iconography.

Revised:

Revised:

Brief 4 - Thought

After visiting the museum at the weekend, the collections and exhibitions are extremely diverse for its size in comparison to the more well known museums. I wanted to try and reference this within the branding and decided having a separate identity for each collection was the best solution. This would be adapted from the main corporate identity I create.

I thought about breaking up the mark I created in Illustrator into several shapes which I could then fill with a colour palette that references each collection - something which I thought about when sketching my initial ideas (here).

Brief 4 - Colour

Ethnology (cultures) - Egypt, oranges, reds, pinks, browns

Natural History - Earthy colours, greens, blues 

Archaeology - Pastels, orange, brown

Numismatics (coins) - Gold, silver, bronze

Local history - Greyscale

Fine Art - Vivid colours

Revised - the other colour scheme reminded me of primary school so I went for a more muted options

Brief 4 - Logo development

I started to translate some of the designs I drew into Illustrator and began experimenting with word marks and the type design. I then explored some of what I thought were the most effective (as well as getting some feedback from others).

Brief 4 - Initial ideas

I started to design some initial logo ideas for Warrington Museum (and Art Gallery), looking primarily at monograms and brand marks to then explore word marks and typeface in Illustrator. 'W' and 'M' is a good combination of letters to work with therefore a lot of the monograms were derived from the symmetry.

A lot of the collections exhibit findings from a diverse range of cultures and countries. I decided to look at Greek architecture for a basis of some logo ideas as a WM monogram fit with the concept. The parallel lines seemed to make a W letterform.

Garaje is a heavy typeface based on Spanish vernacular garage signage. I have only used uppercase as the lowercase glyphs do not sit well with the logo (the x heights match the cap heights and it looks odd).

I came across this fairly recently after it was used in the LCA prospectus. Apercu is a clean and balanced font, based on an amalgamation of classic, realist typefaces. It's subtle eccentricities creates a unique character but its simple form is easy to read.

Goudy is a traditional serif font which best reflects the historic building in which the museum sits. It also corresponds well with the ethnology collection which houses a diverse range of vernacular.