As another final year project, I chose to brand a business idea of mine. The idea is that I take old clothes and turn them into a new item of clothing using the material given. This is an environmentally friendly concept, re-cycling and potentially re-using old clothing before buying new ones.
Project Brief
As this is a new idea created by myself, I created my own brief.
To design, brand and create a logo for the business idea 'Seamless'. To also create branding guidelines for the business idea, incase it was to be moved forward. The design needs to be contemporary and modern, appealing to a larger target market. This is also a fresh idea so I want a fresh look.
Initial Ideas
I brainstormed ideas to start the project. This helped me to start my initial designs.
I wanted to have a cool name for the dressmaking company. I picked out my favourite names and put it to a vote using Google Forms. I sent the form to people 18+ years and mainly woman that I feel would use the service. The results showed me that 'Seamless' was the favourtited name, therefore I continued the process with that name.
Time Mangement
I used 'monday.com' (link below) to manage my time wisely on this project.
I also created a more visual timeline to put up on my wall to ensure I stayed on track.
Research
In order to continue with my sketch designs, I decided to research into local competitors. I also created a mood board with images collected from pintrest, to contribute to the logo designs and branding creation.
Please select the buttons below to go to the specific research section or just scroll through:
I decided to put together a mood board of designs I feel would work well as the logo.
I wanted to ensure my logo appeals to quite a wide audience, but generally aimed towards women as women tend to be the ones who require dressmaking services moreso. Below is what I found a great logo should have.
I decided to choose some of my favourties from my moodboard to explain further what I like about them.
All these designs I feel would appeal to the target market of being more feminine and be adpatable in print products such as leaflet designs etc.
I also researched further about what makes a good logo. Below are five characteristics of a great logo and some examples.
1. Simple
Simple logos are the ones people can recognize as soon as they see them. The simplest logos are the ones people remember the most.
2. Scalable
A great logo should be simple enough to be able to be scaled down or up and still look good.
3. Memorable / Impactful
A great logo should be impactful. You want to capture your viewer’s attentions and leave an impression (a positive impression, hopefully).
4. Versatile
A great logo should look equally good on any web device and on any kind of print material.
5. Relevant
A great logo should be relevant to your practice. It has to have meaning that relates to the work you are doing.
I want to make a logo design that is more modern looking than fancy and old-fashioned. This is why I feel the simplistic and contemporary approach would work best. I did think about going down a vintage look (such as the first rise of sewing machines dating back to 1859 - shown below), however, this wouldn't of fitted the brief.
I also wanted to look into typography and see what fonts to use for my logo designs. I looked for sophisticated fonts as well as simplitstic designs. As I loved the fonts I researched for my client 'C. The Lashes & Brows', I used those ideas for this project.
Below are the main competitors. As my business idea is a fairly different concept to just standard dressmaking, I feel 'Seamless' already has a unique selling point to the user above it's competitors, which is an advantage. I found some local companies that do dressmaking and alterations.
As most dressmakers I found were for bridal and tailoring services, I decided to look up brands that are taking on an environmentally friendly approach to fashion. Eventhough these companies are using waste, I thought I could take inspiration and designs from them.
The companies (from the link below) that stood out to me the most were Patagonia, and Gucci. These companies are both well-established and especially Gucci is a luxury brand. This gave me hope that my idea of using old clothing and turning it into something else somebody would like, could be quite popular. Of course, 'Seamless' would be on a much smaller scale than these big brand names.
All the competitors I found have a consistent brand. Eventhough these companies are slightly different to what 'Seamless' is, I will still be taking various ideas from my research. Both dressmakers use quite feminine looking branding, but I guess the target is more aimed at women.
I wanted to ensure the name of my dressmaking idea was rememberable and appealed to the audience (mainly woman aged 16+ years due it it being a dressmakers, but could interest a male audience interested in having their clothes re-designed). I decided to create a Google Forms questionaire and send it out to people who fitted the target market to gather their thoughts (vote for the best name). I orginally brainstormed names in my ideas section, and gatehered the name ideas from competitors from general knowledge etc.
Designs
I sketched many ideas before developing my designs digitally. This enabled me to get my ideas onto paper to view visually. I then continued to create digital designs, and showed my designs to my peers and lecturers to gain regular feedback.
While I waited for the responses from my Google Forms name vote, I started to sketch designs without the name so I didn't waste an valuble design thinking time. I tried to implement the world due to the idea being environmentally friendly.
After collecting the results from the Google Forms responses, I sketched logo designs using the 'Seamless" name.
I started developing my designs digitally on Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, taking inspiration from my sketches, and my mood board I created in my research. As I liked the needle cross idea, along with the continuation of the thread with a heart drawn in the middle (following Gestalts Theory), I designed a few ideas including that. I also thought a round logo would look good on various social media platforms such as instagram and on print products. I also took inspiration from my 'C. The Lashes & Brows' project, and designed some geometric logo ideas. I used mainly the Brush Script and Helvetica font types due to them being clear and easy to read fonts fitting my contemporary and modern design brief.
Below is how I developed some of my designs. I used mainly the pen tool and used the colour fill or stroke. I find the pen tool great and easy to use to create what I was after. I also was able to use the pen tool to trace over the logo found in my research. I created the needle also using the pen tool, along with creating a white rectangle to create the sharp end (the rectangle could then be deleted leaving me with the needle shape shown). I then used the layers to ensure the thread flowed through the needle correctly. I used the same needle throughout my designs by copying and pasting. To create the globe of the world, I used a PNG image found on Google, I then used the pen tool to draw a heart and the other elements.
Feedback
I gathered some feedback from my peers, and target market (people aged 16+ years, and lecturers) due to it being my idea and not having a client to gather feedback from.
The favourite designs across the feedback I was given are shown below.
The favourite designs across the feedback I was given are shown below. I then developed these ideas which is found on my "Developed Digital Designs section.
Developed Digital Designs
After receiving peoples feedback, I continued to develop the favourited designs. I decided against the globe logo design due to it not appealing to my target market as much as the other designs and as it is purely a dressmakers, I didn't want there to be any confussion with my logo. I also decided against the geometric design as I perfered the other designs better, and felt the the grey dress in the background looked lost. Looking back at my research, I wanted to include a heart where possible. I feel adding the heart to the logo designs will make the company look friendly and I feel it is a symbol for 'loving the environment'.
I continued to create some Facebook header designs ready for the creation of 'Seamless' on social media. A Facebook header is a great addition to a companies social media page, to add slightly more detial, give users more information or for a slogan.
Further Ideas
I thought it would be good to have a leaflet design, which in the future could be given to potential customers. I therefore did a bit of research on leaflet designs. Below is a moodboard I created on leaflet designs I felt would suit the 'Seamless' new logo and branding.
I also found this website (below) which gave me advice for the leaflet designs. The main points I found were to keep it clear, simple and engage the reader.
Leaflet Designs:
I also thought it would be good to have buisness cards created too, for potential customers to keep, with contact details on. I created a moodboard of designs I liked and I feel would work well for my client. The general design always have a logo at the front and then contact information on the back.
I used Adobe InDesign to create the designs. The Business Card Designs are found below. I liked the idea of the iridescent gradient background although I felt the plain white background allowed the content to stand out more.
Buisness Card Designs:
Final Outcome
I was very pleased with my final outcome. I feel the designs reflect the buisness idea clearly. It looks modern and contemporary which is the look I wanted to achieve. I originally wanted to ensure the potential user knew it was environmentally friendly, although I feel this is achieved through the Facebook header design.
Below is the final logo design.
I also created a final leaflet design on Adobe InDesign.
Alongside the final Facebook Header Design.
The final Buisness Card Design.
I used various software I knew already and have learned from my last 3 years at University. It is important in third year to build on the skills we already know rather than trying to teach ourselves something new. This makes us more advanced in our specific areas of design. I did however learn Adobe Animate, but as I was already familiar with all Adobe programmes, alot of the controls and tools were the same.
The 'Seamless' audience would appeal to many people ineterested in having unique clothing, their clothes re-made and like the environmentally friendly approach. The target market is mainly woman aged 16+ years due it it being a dressmakers, but could interest a male audience interested in having their clothes re-designed.
I would like to thank the following people:
Charlotte Toms, my client for the project. Thank you for being co-operative
Paul Wilson and the DMD Team, for always giving feedback and providing support throughout projects