With a successful branding campaign underway, I could turn to help the development of the laptop sleeves and helping to fix the issues that were raised concerning those areas within the presentation last week. One of the key issues was concerning the lack of customizability and uniqueness within the sleeves, why would someone buy our sleeves if they can buy another one that does the same things, but from a more recognized company.

Immedtidley an answer to this was discussed after looking back through our brand values. Our brand focuses on diversity and creativity, given that diversity is such a key element within our brand I felt it a good idea to try to diversify the sleeves themselves somehow, some of the options include; personalized name tags, writable whiteboard materials placed onto the sleeves as well as varying patterns and sizes in order to deliver a more effective bespoke service.

As well as this, a plan to utilize the ceramics based student without the group to make ceramic buttons that can be uniquely sized and engraved to the customers liking, I feel this will give the product a particularly unique spin, the small differences within the ceramic buttons would also assist to portray a unique aesthetic that, as long as the buttons are constructed to a high quality then the small and unique differences would become a positive and would, therefore, boost the brand values.

After the presentation on Thursday, several improvements have been made to the branding as well as the overall image has been changed and improved drastically, the font and logo have remained the same however almost everything else has been overhauled massively. Examples of the business card, splash screen, and some posters are posted below.

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I think these examples express the company’s values and aesthetics much closer, a large amount of smaller brush strokes allowed me to include a more broad colour palette and make each design more unique, alternatively, it generally gives me more freedom within creating the design as seen within the different colour outcomes posted above.

The brush strokes being raster and handmade from actual brush strokes rather than a vector illustration created within illustrator allows me to keep the fluidity and varying colours of the brush strokes. However, a downside to this is the slight loss in quality within the image itself as well as the greatly extended creation time for each poster/pattern. The creation of these patterns is straight forward and allows me to explore media past simply creating work that exists completely within the digital realm.

Stages of Making

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To create the contrasting and vibrant brush strokes I began by painting some high-quality calligraphy ink onto a sheet of A4 paper so that the strokes have small details and slightly varying colours, I felt calligraphy ink would be more effective than paint as it generally tends to give off a deeper colour set.

after this, I took photos and inserted the images into photoshop, once within photoshop they were inverted to darken the background and levels were adjusted to makes the outlines of the brush strokes more isolated so that the whole stroke could then be ported into another document where the pattern was made.

After the files are ported into photoshop I then selected individual brush strokes and then input those strokes into an A4 file where they were then recoloured and arranged accordingly until the aesthetic that I desired was created, this not only made an aesthetically pleasing and professional quality pattern but also allowed me to experiment with different colours, brushes and placements of the brush strokes in order to try out what other designs could look like as well as to make every design that this pattern is incorporated into, completely unique.

Heavy amounts of editing were incorporated into the files so that the vibrant and harmonising colour pallet could be achieved, given what we want the sleeves to look like I thought this was extremely vital to creating an overall successful brand.

After a large amount of experimentation with this effect, I am satisfied that I have explored sufficient option in terms of form, colour and brush types. Personally, I think the bright pinks match the brand perfectly, the wild brush strokes seen in the earlier examples give off an essence of “Organised Chaos” Implying that the company is creative in nature, has flair, yet is not an unprofessional company and so can be trusted with making a high-quality product. Although these examples did take a long time to create, as each brush stroke had to be imported and coloured individually and as the colours and placement of everything mattered so much they required very fine tweaking to ensure that the strokes were not slightly too clustered or slightly too separated. I felt this was necessary as this pattern will most likely be used within many different areas of the brand and so it is of utmost importance that the first examples are done perfectly and that sufficient alternatives have been explored.

Overall I would say that the branding re rework has been a huge success, I think I would have run into many problems with the previous iteration of the branding as well as it lacks the sense of professionalism and dynamism that I think is present within these examples. The company is now standing on firmer foundations and therefore has much more potential in terms of success, I think it is equally important to continue on with coming up with new and exciting ways to present Consilio.

Presenting our work so far to the class resulted in a branding heavy presentation, still being in the earlier stages of the project only very small amounts of manufacturing have occurred, some sketches have been completed however the company’s overall image is beginning to take some shape, the typeface, colours and overall use of the brush strokes will help massively to judge what kind of materials and patterns will be placed onto the sleeves themselves once they have been made.

A general response to the presentation was that some samples needed to be created as well as some of the branding, especially the business card looks more like a makeup brand rather than a company that makes laptop sleeves, while in this instance I do not think it is necessary for the logo and business card to scream laptop sleeves too loudly, as I think that overall this would hurt the brand image and close off too many potential ideas that could be used with the brush strokes and the colours present within the brand. However I do agree that the business card could be much stronger, the company boasts about having huge amounts of colours and vibrancy and I feel like a single coloured brush stroke does not translate this fact and the brush stroke itself does mimic a large amount of imagery present within makeup brands, the fact that this is then echoed through the splash screen and the logo would raise the question of does the company need a rebrand and a general overhaul to the imagery used within it?

Manufacturing and Drafts of the Sleeves (So Far)

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At this time we have a very basic prototype created, although the materials are rough, the sizes of the sleeve still works and therefore both a laptop as well as a sketchbook can fit in separate pockets. The cost of materials is becoming a worry and our objective to create 30 sleeves may not become a reality unless we are able to acquire additional funds from elsewhere in order to make a greater amount of fabric, the patterns for the sleeves are yet to be produced however it is looking like we will use something similar to the brush strokes that I have created in various parts of the branding already.

After Tuesday’s session in the studio, The branding has to be pushed further and a splash screen must be created alongside the general product being pushed further after the rough sketches that I had created, the week previous.

The splash screen must be different from the business card but essentially contain the same kind of information, a rough intro into what our brand creates as well as links and pictures to send the viewers to digital media such as our Instagram that is just starting up and being updated with posts every 1-2 days as more work is being created, making it not only a platform for promotional material but it can also function as a documentation of our work timeline while increasing the awareness and overall sales of our product.

Beginning the splash screen but simply viewing the business card once again, and creating more brush strokes in similar colours that can exist in the background of the screen while appropriate information is placed over the top of the brush strokes.

While we can only include static images into the splash screen, I still want to maximise the advertising opportunity given to us by trying to include some form of digital movement/animation, this will make our screen stand out against some of the other groups whos product will be displayed along the same screens at different times, the extremely bright and vibrant colours contrasting with the black background should do this on its own, but assisting in its impact in any way I can will ensure that the most effective screen is created and the brand strengthened. By including a form of GIF into the splash screen then a moving entity can be placed into a somewhat static file and give it a sense of dynamism.

Creating a GIF

Using the same colours and type from previous parts of the branding, I’ve decided to incorporate a moving entity into the splash screen. Doing this within photoshop is an easy process that yields high quality and endlessly playback results, by first making them work in sperate layers, in this instance I’ve simply put the different lines of text on different layers you can then queue when you want each layer to go from hidden, to shown and then back to hidden. A simple process allows the text to flash on top of the black background in an infinite loop, giving the splash screen a better dynamic finish and still being able to use the coloured brush strokes, once again tieing it all into the overall brand aesthetic.

I really like the way that this artwork looks, matching in nicely into the brand and attracting attention from the viewer without being too overbearing takes a careful balance of colours and text size, as well as carefully adjusting the frames of the GIF to ensure a smooth transition is achieved, I would like to make the brush strokes flash as well as the text, however, I think that this would make the GIF too flashy and lose its professional finish that I feel it currently has. Although this has been made specifically for the splash screen I see no reason why it can’t be reused in later parts of the project to promote our brand.

Splash Screens

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Throughout my experiments with the splash screen I seemed to know what kind of image I wanted to create, heavy use of the single and colourful brushstroke was prevalent however I thought that there needed to be a colour change for these examples, the business card already used a large yellow stroke and so doing the exact same for the splash screen felt a bit lazy, alongside this I also changed the brushstroke itself, creating a range of about six different vector brush strokes in illustrator and then blending them into the text and other effects accordingly. Due to the position of where the splash screen was going to be, in my later and more successful experimentations I felt that a large QR code would be very useful, something that would not require the viewers to stretch far from their phone after my research on trend hunting I found that it is becoming much more popular to simply step into the users world rather than attempting to become their friends and invite them into yours, by including a large QR code that could be read from a far distance I could easily invite and intrigue large amounts of viewers to our company Instagram, and from there, they could find out a large amount of information about our company and even begin to see the products that we are creating. Because of this I felt that there did was no need for a large amount of text on the splash screen, the space would mostly be taken up by decorative aesthetics, this would mean that the information I did include could be a very large point size and therefore, very clearly legible even with the chosen typeface that boasts a more messy and handmade look.

Final Splash Screen

splash screen 4 (3)

After my experimentations I decided to utilise the triple screen setup where my splash screen would go, by doing this I was able to make the text very large and legible even when placed onto an already bright background as well as the QR being able to be scanned from a distance, not forcing the viewer to disrupt their path and lessen the time it takes for someone to gain access to our Instagram and discover our product being created.

I think this works as an effective splash screen, it attracts attention and matches the overall brand aesthetic while being slightly different enough to be counted as its own piece of branding and keeping the pace exciting and dynamic by using a different variation of brush strokes, while keeping some key elements the same but including a large scale GIF that would loop on repeat, covering over the entire middle screen and serving as the tagline for our brand.

If given more time I would like to experiment with more brush strokes and possibly make some of my own using photography and physical paintbrushes rather than just using illustrator to make them, this would allow for a better sense of realism within the screen and a wider range of deeper and more interesting colour range.

Elevator Pitch

After the weekends work for the group now had to complete a 17.9-second elevator pitch whereby we had to convince someone of our business idea as having enough potential for success. If the group failed then the pitch had to be attempted once again.

The pitch went very well, each group member contributed and we passed the pitch first time. The pitch also helped develop the story of our brand in a succinct and persuasive way. Overall I found this exercise very useful and fun at the same time.

I think that next time we could improve our pitch by creating some small samples to show during the pitch in order to get a better picture of what the unique patterns would look like when placed onto the sleeves themselves.

Alongside finishing the elevator pitch, I have begun to create the remaining parts of the branding. moving on from the logo but still being inspired by the colours, fonts and overall aesthetics from it I moved first onto creating the business card. The card had to stand out from others around it, the bright, neon colours extracted from the logo do a good job of helping this. The black background heavily contrasting seemed important to keep throughout all elements of the branding, this is due to the fact that the actual logo is extremely simple, the colours and other elements of the branding so far also remain relatively simple and so for the branding to be recognised as belonging to Consilio. This does not allow much room for customisation within the business card, this does have positives, it allows me to create initial drafts of the cards very quickly, this overall turned out to be a good thing as I am only given roughly two days to create a professional standard business card, these exercises normally last up to a few weeks within my subject of Graphic Communication. Learning to create slightly rougher drafts and focussing on streamlining my design process. I found this to be particularly prevalent within the second week of the project, and so this portion of the project has pushed me far as a Graphic Designer. Some drafts of the business cards are below.

business cards

The cards are made using a combination of photoshop and Indesign. The bright colours have diminished slightly after being printed and converted into CMYK. However, the clear brush stroke and unique typeface used ensured that the brand can still be easily identified. The type is large enough to remain legible when printed onto the small card, however, the subheadings and contact information could do with being a slightly bigger point size in order to stand out more and increase legibility, the bright white type would benefit from being larger due to the contrast between the dark background and type colour.

On top of the business card, I plan to incorporate the tagline “It’s a cover-up”, into a more physical manifestation of the tagline, Richard had mentioned that the tagline could have some negative undertones, potentially making it seem like the company is trying to hide something, and any negative connotations within the startup of the company could result in some reduction in sales on the 11th Feb.

The tagline will be laser cut out onto a small section of the card and then placed around the business card and sewn together. This helps to translate the metaphor that the cover-up is not something secretive or negative but the cover-up is the sleeve that the laptop is “covered up with”. As well as being an interesting play on words doing this will also make those who pick up the card stop and look at the information for a short time. From there the potential customer can be transported into the brand’s digital branches and gain access to product examples and contact emails to find out more about Consilio.

Overall I think these business cards fit into the brand aesthetic, however, I think that they are very simple and perhaps slightly too similar to the logo and sets the pace too slow for a company that relies on a dramatic and punchy colour to give off a clear and outstanding image. The brush strokes can easily remain to be placed within other areas of the branding using one of the few colours that are on the badges themselves in order to reflect an appropriate image and have it be identified as that particular piece of branding belonging to Consilio.

Inbetween the Thursday and next Tuesday sessions The group needs to come up with a finalized logo idea. With a name and a tagline already identified, there was a clear opportunity to conceal or layer some elements of the logo. This would match in nicely with the tagline and allow some play on words to be incorporated. This accompanied with the colour schemes that are to be incorporated into the laptop sleeves provided by the target market research, I began by creating some both coloured and black and white examples that could be further developed into a polished outcome.

I decided that the actual design of the logos were more important to get right, the colour scheme could then be applied to the approved design.

Originally I decided to use some different families of the Futura font, a clean, sans serif and modern stylistic font that is clearly legible and so makes a perfect logo font.

Playing around with the aspect of concealing, I thought that since our laptop sleeves would boast a dark and dull backdrop and bright punchy colours in the foreground this then should be reflected within the logo. Examples, where this would be particularly possible, are below.

I think these logos would work particularly well because of both the layering aspect as well as the two shapes looking as if they lock together, symbolically representing the laptop because covered by up the sleeve. The bright and neon colour contrast greatly with the dark navy outlines of the shapes. However, I think that perhaps this design would work better if the colours were swapped so that there is much less neon placed on top of a darker background. This would then require the text to be inverted to a whiter shade, this also opens up more possibilities to incorporate shadows and a revealing aspect into further logo designs.

(shadow logos)

After my first round of logos, I decided to incorporate shadows more into my designs, still using the same fonts but a simple manipulation into the company name allows an element of layering into the logo while it remaining to be very legible. However, this does stop me being able to incorporate a large amount of colour into the logo.

After reviewing the logos created by other members of my group it seems that a softer and more feminine logo is desired, the simple looks of these logos are very prevalent. A single stroke of neon with a thinner black and playful text. The typefaces used help to translate a sense of playfulness, after the feedback I have decided to make some more logos themed on the examples created by my group members.

given that our laptop sleeves are made to be completely limited edition, bespoke and completely unique, I felt the logo needed to reflect that somewhat. Due to the badges being given to each of us I think that using a multicoloured brush stroke within the background. After creating this the group requested that it be made simpler and more legible and so I decided to remove the element of layering and the shadows, in the consideration of the legibility of the outcome.

The final outcomes have been simplified and some of the colours inverted and changed to make them brighter and contrast greater. The unique brushstroke helps to symbolise the bespoke and personal nature of our brand, the brush can be replicated and slightly changed in different aspects of our brand, the neon colours, unique marker like typeface and the dark background all help to unify the brand as one single entity while being able to change the outcomes making them unique enough to not become boring, but not too different as to hurt the consistency of the branding overall.

Crafting the logos into badges was a simple and quick process, using a badge maker to simply cut and press the designs into the metal and plastic frame.

Designing Sleeve Concepts

alongside creating the logo I have also raised important questions and design decisions within the group, for the laptop sleeve, I thought it would be important to decide what kind of a design the sleeve would be. In particular, whether it would be a much thicker and less portable design, or something thinner that the laptop can be made more portable however this would then mean that fewer items could then be stored within the sleeve. Given our target audience and it is a person that is an extremely busy and efficient person, they would perhaps not want a heavy and bulky bag to store their laptop in, a thinner design would perhaps be preferred. The thinner design would also cost less to make, requiring a smaller amount of materials to craft, allowing the group to make smaller sleeves that are perhaps a much higher quality.

An interesting twist for the thinner design could be, allowing the sleeve to unzip and detach from itself while keeping the laptop covered and protected from external hazards, a second pocket under the laptop that can house any additional devices as well a sketchbook with supplies for work. This design is very different to the majority of sleeve designs out there currently, normally you can either get a bulky design you slide the laptop out of or a thinner design with no room for extra products that you can slot your laptop into. With this design you find a pleasant and convenient medium that serves both purposes, this makes the functionality of the sleeves extremely high, this coupled with interesting and unique patterns and personalisation elements will truly dominate the market in terms of laptop sleeves and should sell in high numbers with heavy demand.

Target Market Development

Further research of the target market and beginning forming a focus group to conduct surveys and judge our work has resulted in already acquiring a few pre-orders if the cases are deemed a high enough quality. This means that creating a sample as soon as possible is essential in order to secure some purchases and begin paying back our seed fund and start making profit back.

In order to expand our focus group and get a more accurate product, making a social media account with contact details being sent to an email would help to get a larger audience.