Studio Brief 01 - Final Crit

Today we have had the final crit for this particular project and I presented my final ideas to my peer group.

I picked out my five final designs and presented these on a sheet together (see fig1 below). My own particular favourite was the one with the two 'S's in yellow as I felt this had a quirky element without being too over the top. I wasn't too bothered about my logo being incredibly modern or contemporary as this didn't suit my particular target market, which was quite open. An electrical parts company has a mainly adult market but has no specific age range or gender so I felt using a slight quirk might help keep it attractive to a larger market.

The immediate feedback I received was that this was not the best design - one person said that if I was going to use the yellow hand-drawn lettering, it would definitely look better as the 'I's rather than the 'S's. People were also unsure as to why I had chosen to include these 'S's rather than just using normal type. I explained how I felt it added an extra 'selling point' as such but they responded by saying it just appeared too childish and inappropriate for the target market. I had not thought of this until it was said but I can see now how that would be perceived.

fig1.




Fig2 below shows my favourite chosen final design in a variety of styles - both thick and thin 'S's and a black and white option. I created these to demonstrate how the design can work in grayscale as well colour, yet people immediately said it looked better in black and white. Again, this shocked me as I personally felt it looked better in colour.

 fig2.


I also put my designs into context so it was easier to get an idea of what it would look like in the correct setting. I used a few basic mock up packaging images and simply placed my logotype over the top and also superimposed it onto a shop front sign (see fig3 below). People asked me why it had to be a white packaging used - it didn't, this was just purely for the sake of showcasing the logo on some packaging. They suggested I put more thought into this - would it look better on black with white text? Or maybe even a yellow background?

fig3.


Overall, the feedback was that my best design was the simple one where I had removed the tittle off the 'i'.  They said this was clean and simple and made the brand appear trustworthy and safe.
There were suggestions of potentially making this more oblique, but this could cause problems for signage etc. Brands such as Maplin and Clas Ohlson were suggested for me to look at - a similar focus to my company and similar design. People also recommended that I tried the font in an ultra light thin version and review the outcome.

This feedback has been suprising but very useful and it has certainly made me look at my own work in a different way.