Slowly and surely my UAL rebrand project is coming together. I’ve still got quite a bit to do, like get the letterheads printed and do the tote bags and make the sketchbooks and screen print them, but i’m quite content how it is going so far.
Producing things is the hardest part (especially when its produced wrong!). Designing is easy…
It is the end of the first week of easter holidays and I haven’t really got as much done as I had hoped for. I’ve found that production is much harder than the design part. Trying to find people who came make things for you or where to buy the materials is really time consuming.
For this project I was told to experiment some more with the shape, and I did but it just did not work. So I just made edit to the typography. I really liked the angles on the interstate typeface so I used the angle of the logo within the type. I edited the ascenders only. It is a really subtle change but at lest it makes the type seem a bit more personal.
I then went on to design some posters, however I felt that they were just illustrations rather than of any use. I then used the pattern I already had as a letterhead back page. I tried to incorporate the type within the white out, but it felt like it was floating, not really anchored to any position plus it was impossible to keep the text consistent across all pages. I used the text and logo on the other side of the page, but once again the shape changes therefore making it hard to keep the layout consistent. I removed the shape as the back page was bold enough to show which university it was.
After finalising the layout my super friend Becky, basically told me that the pattern wasn’t good enough, and she was right, the triangles looked bad at large scale. They weren’t aligned, there were gaps all over the place. I know they were a bit dodge but thought “that will do”, but as Becky brought to my attention, this is a third year final portfolio project, “that will do” is not the right mentality to have, so I spent the rest of my day making the pattern better. I am happy that I did make it better, as there is no point rushing the work. I will only have 5 projects in my portfolio so I might as well do them well. Its harder with this project as there is pretty much multiples of 6 for everything. Tote bags, Security cards, Badges, Sketchbooks, Letterheads.
The security cards I will probably have to do again, as I sent them to print with the dodge pattern, so if I did it well the first time I wouldn’t have to revisit the work as well as pay out for it again. Anyway its all coming together, but I am limited on what I can complete as to screen print the bags and sketchbooks I need to be able to get into byamshaw. First week of term is going to be hectic!
Today was final crit day, and got some feedback, mainly on my typography choice plus comments about the colours of the shape however it is was pretty much simple advice. I think I will play with the type some more, as well as focus on just using the identity within the building as otherwise I will be trying to put the identity on a million things (like the posts before). Perhaps I will continue with the business cards and test them out, but really printed material isn’t the most interesting aspect of identity application.
Some of comments were focused on the actual choice of typeface rather than its layout, suggesting that it was too rounded and giving the identity a childish look. When looking at the typeface at a larger scale it is clear that it is not a geometric typeface at all, and it has some quite odd looking letters, for example the G… However the Franklin Gothic has a much better looking G. Also the kerning is a lot tighter, which the geometric typeface was said to be too loose. I have looked at Interstate, but I think this typeface is even more strange, it seems like an odd place for the decender to be cut off. I will test the Franklin Gothic and see what kind of feel it gives to the mark.
Even though I have drawn this mark a thousand times, I still can’t remember the order or which piece fits where… Maybe thats not a very good sign, not rememberable enough?
I have been messing around with other things that the identity could be added to such as bus stands and cars, but I really need to create a perfected version of how the identity would look on the website as well as a prospectus.
I’ve been experimenting and developing more how the identity would work around the building, however I am really struggling with getting the perspective right, for some reason I am finding it hard to visualise what it should look like, therefor I don’t know if I am getting it right.
Next I am going to look at products such as the UAL website, as well colleges plus the general Prospectus’ and bags etc
Below are my quick mock ups of how the different shapes would fit into a space or walls. I obviously need to work on these as things like perspective are missing, therefore it doesn’t look too realistic. I think the shapes work well on windows, however text gets a bit lost.
Today I tried to project my shapes and text onto walls to try and see how the identity would look when applied to a surface. There was some issues with this, firstly the projector light was not strong enough to compete with the studio lights, also from a distance, the images became weak therefore you could barely see the shapes or the detail.
I think it was an interesting experiment do to, however I think I will do some clever photoshopping instead to show more clearly how the identity would look in various situations.
Yesterday I started off the day thinking that I had pretty much finished my mark and that the type (in my opinion it was pretty good)was fine. However feedback from others suggested different so I had lots of to work on to try and make the mark and the type correct. Really it was the typography that was letting the piece now, it felt really awkward and the scale was really odd too.
So after a lot of reprinting, edits and tweeting I managed to create something I was happy with. (See Below – they maybe random sizes as I created these files for my projection experiment)
I was developing two ideas one that included the greyed out shapes and the rest that removed the greyed sections totally. After all the tweaking and editing I felt that the shape was just too awkward to use everywhere, it was quite restricting. Therefore I decided to go on without it. Perhaps I may use it on the UAL website – like the previous animation where when on a specific site, the colour of the current college stays and the others fade back.
I have used grey for the UAL when accompany the colleges as I don’t feel like this is the most important information, however it does have to sit above the college name, as all the colleges are under UAL as an umbrella.
I LOVE MAKING GIFS! This is the first time I have made a gif, I have no knowledge of animation, so I used photoshop to make my mark move. I think they look great, obviously they are quite crude but I think if I spent some more time making them, I could make it flow really well. Its nice to see how the shape animated rather than just static.
Lizhamburger 
