In this blog, I will be illustrating how I would like to come across to the viewers of my website and other social media by exploring and establishing a brand identity. I will start by refering back to my logo research which is a post I did separately, outside of the brief category. There, I looked into two different logos, (WWF and Blue Sky) studying their evolution and design meanings to understand the complexities behind even a simple text-based graphic. I concluded with the understanding that every element matters, from the text to the smallest of lines and it’s positioning – they all have a purpose in the overall design and although may be overlooked in their meaning, actually add to the intended effect in the viewer’s mind, even subconsciously. From the examples I found, I plan to make different versions of my logo, not just with colour and form but also with texture, medium and style. WWF’s graphic stencil versions greatly inspire me in this sense and I believe that the more experimentation you do, the more you can narrow down your design to the best and most effective versions.

 

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Old Logos

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First, let’s catch up with my brand history and what I’ve done so far. During our first year at college, we did a lot of technique-based lessons, where we were taught a lot of new skills in order to familiarise ourselves with the programs and learn the capabilities of animation and VFX. Because of this, we were churning out new work every week and were encouraged to share and post this on social media so that our journey could be documented and progress could be seen visually. I found myself posting videos on Youtube, and with that came the need to have some sort of name and logo to identify my work with. I was really excited about this since I love designing and creating, and a logo and name essentially mark the start of a brand, which is what I decided to do! I made it my goal to have a fully functioning brand by the end of Confetti, with up-to-date pages across multiple platforms and socials, which I can now focus on entirely thanks to the B1 brief. The very first logo I ever designed was quite different to what I have now, however.

 

 

At the time, I didn’t know what I could choose as an image or infographic to represent me. All I knew was that I liked birds and the colour purple and that this could somehow be symbolic of artistic capabilities (skills taking flight?). It is very poorly designed; hard to discern, unbalanced and unappealing altogether. I was new to Adobe Illustrator and my skills were quite limited, hence that janky line work. This would be updated a short while later when I had a better sense of who I was and a greater understanding of Adobe Software. A great deal of the inspiration came from this original design though, since I still wanted to keep the curving lines and wing symbol.

 

 

 

As you can see, despite being a mere month later, there is a drastic improvement in the quality of the design and the overall look. I had chosen a colour palette that I liked, adding gold and smoky blue to create the impression of finery and premium design work thanks to their associations with wealth and professionalism. The text is my Bulgarian name, one that exclusively family refers to me as and is quite personal to me – I wanted to portray it with a cursive font because coupled with the graphic and the colours, it gave this almost 1920s feel to the logo. The aesthetic I leant myself to was based on my visual interests at the time: royal core, detailed art, flowing and complex patterns. I also liked that the lines on the wings resembled paintbrush strokes since this established an illustration side of my logo and showcased my love of drawing. It’s also quite dynamic in the way the viewer’s eyes follow the wing, hinting at the motion involved in animation as well.

In the end, I chose the top left design since the text stood out and the strokes of colour were clearly visible on the wing. With my current experience, I can now see that this combination wasn’t the best either since the dark tons of the blue and wine-red blend together, reducing the contrast greatly and making the wing quite flat. I think I wasn’t too happy with it at the time either because I didn’t use this logo for my Youtube channel. Moving along the timeline, we had another chance to use our logo design skills in the Bauhaus lesson, where we learned about the style’s origins and how it can be applied to practically anything visual.

 

 

I really enjoyed creating an alternative to the logo design I already had. It gave me a chance to refresh my skills and apply entirely new techniques that I wouldn’t have thought about or gone to before. The geometric, abstract characteristics of the Bauhaus movement meant that I had to think outside of the box since I tend to avoid blocky styles like these. To me, they are devoid of emotion and serve only as a visual interest within the design so initially, I struggled with coming up with the idea. I simplified my original logo back to its basic shapes, using overlaps within circles to add flavour and adding more space between elements. The ‘4’ is supposed to be the first letter of my Bulgarian name, which I simplified from cursive by writing the block font version that is often used in Bulgarian print, instead of the hand-writing version. I don’t think I succeeded with the design, since it does look like a number rather than a letter, but I like how I changed the wing and colour palette. I created long, diagonal, straight lines with some curves to show resemblance to the original design and also used the main four colours but turned them into saturated, bright and bold tones to reflect the Bauhaus palette. And as always, I keep some different colour versions to show development and also because it is one of my favourite aspects of design work!

My logo was about to take a drastic change despite this. I often doodle in class to help with concentration, which may seem counterproductive but it does actually help me hone into what the teacher is saying and listen when my hands don’t have anything else to do (e.g. Do It For Real lessons). It was during an online lesson that I was drawing little potatoes and one of my doodles turned out to be very charismatic, cute and fun. I kept coming back to it and imagining it within a circular frame – this would make a perfect logo. And that’s where little Teaspoon was born.

 

 

 

Creating this potato character marked the start of my ‘TSP’ era, which was the first official semi-complete brand I had and used for my YouTube channel. I felt that he was perfect for an animation brand because of the silly style and the randomness, so I took it further. First, the name, which described the logo pretty well: The Screaming Potato. It was memorable, catchy and unique because I had checked and no other significant organisation had such a name. Shortened, this was ‘TSP’, which in cooking terms means teaspoon, hence the name. I quickly created a finalised version, added it to my Instagram and Youtube and created some banners as well.

 

 

 

I used Teaspoon’s palette which had bright, fun colours to reflect the style I had chosen. Light blue, yellow and hints of red as well, all of which look quite eye-catching on various platforms. The problem is, I never truly connected with this brand because I thought too generally. TSP was a brand for animation, but since I hadn’t discovered my own style yet, I could never fully accept the cartoonish aesthetic as my own and you can see this feeling peeking through when you look at the banners. My chosen font was serif and quite posh which clashed majorly with the little screaming potato next to it and I somehow overlooked this, thinking that the banners were professional! Perhaps thanks to the simple background the title could work, but looking back now, I don’t like certain decisions I took, as they lead to a lack of cohesion. TSP is still being used for my YouTube channel currently, but I have known for a long time that it was simply a placeholder and would need to be changed to something that reflects me more. After all, if you don’t connect with your own brand identity, how can you call it your identity and for that matter, how could you expect the audience to connect with it? This brings me to the present day and the brand update that I have been working on since halfway through last year.

 

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Building My Current Brand

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The big question I faced when creating a new brand was what do I want my online identity to mean? It seems quite obvious to centre it around my hobbies and career but a brand is more than just its professional purpose. It is a reflection of the individual and often encompasses ideas that are deeper than just the surface, such as beliefs, personality traits, appearance, and/or expressions that characterize the person of their work. Should the person choose it, their logo and brand aesthetic can be extremely meaningful, featuring things like memories, experiences or personal phrases and images. There is a balance to consider here as well, the more special the brand is to the person, the more sensitive they may be to criticism, but it needs to be personal enough that there is a connection so that the work can be accepted and better recognised. Everything, from the smallest visual choices to the logo and name has power and encompass some of the core values of the company or person. With all this in mind, the task I had to do carried far more weight to it and for a short period, I was overwhelmed with ideas and options. Taking a step back, I began with gathering inspiration, the classic way to start any project.

 

*̩̩̥͙　-•̩̩͙-ˏˋ⋆  Gathering Inspo – Logo  ⋆ˊˎ-•̩̩͙-　*̩̩̥͙

 

 

As you can see in the above mood board, almost all of the logos that I liked the best had some sort of animal or mascot as their main graphic which is clearly what inspires me most. In my opinion, cute/beautiful characters and silhouettes really give life to a brand, which is my love of animation and illustration peeking through there. Although it sticks out like a sore thumb, I also included the Apple logo because I like the bubbles, paint and glossy clustered feel. I knew that I wanted to showcase that animation is a big part of what I do so leaving the inspo-hunting at just static images would be wrong.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hopped on Dribbble and gather a few logo animations that I really liked and again, I noticed that I was more drawn to flowing movements and lines, things that satisfyingly merge together or weave into different elements like water. The movement of liquid reminds me most of animation and art because it resembles paint or watercolour so there was another clear direction: no mathematical, stiff movements.

 

*̩̩̥͙　-•̩̩͙-ˏˋ⋆  Idea Generation – Brand Meaning  ⋆ˊˎ-•̩̩͙-　*̩̩̥͙

 

Next came the brainstorming, which I did through mind-mapping. I wrote down the main areas of my life that were important to me or simply things that I wanted my work to mean and therefore my brand to represent, such as ‘creative ideas’. It was a rapid-fire process as the aim was to get some quick ideas, which I did by writing or doodling whatever came to mind, even if it wasn’t the most obvious thing to put down. I didn’t shy away from strange or small ideas that might not seem useful because they popped into my brain and they could lead to something else!

 

 

Out of all the ideas above ‘eye for design’, ‘flow and change’ and ‘the supernatural’ stuck out to me most. I pride myself on having a strong aesthetic sense and knowing how to make things presentable and beautiful, whether it’s a blog post or an image-based edit. This skill was included in my Next Steps PowerPoint and CV as well because I think it’s one of the most useful things to have within the industry and I want this to be shown in my brand. Flow and change are notions essential to animation and life (which makes sense since animation captures life). They are responsible for moving us all forwards and allowing us to experience things. To me, change is what elevates art: without movement, it would just be a static picture, which is fine but it isn’t animation. Clearly, dynamism will be a key part of my brand, given that I have also gathered logo GIFS as part of my inspiration, and I want to showcase this through my website as well, so motion and transitions will hopefully be available for me to play around with. Finally, we have ‘the supernatural’, which is something I was reminded of when thinking within the realm of fantasy. Although technically a different genre, I find a lot of links between supernatural elements and fantastical ones, such as the unbelievable aspect, and the idea of the unknown. When people think of the supernatural, a darker fantasy comes to mind, one grounded in reality and lurking in the shadows. I love this mysterious sense: the idea that there is something unexplainable and mystical is the closest we can get to magic within our reality.

I realised that it would be amazing if I could put forward the idea that my work brings a hint of magic to our world, but how could I do this without making the audience think of werewolves and ghosts (I want to be more fantasy and less supernatural)?  This is when I thought of the owl! One of my favourite animals since I was young and one that truly holds great meaning for me because of the film Legend of the Guardians: Owls of Ga’Hoole. This is one of the films that made me fall in love with fantasy, spirituality and the magic of the owl, so why not choose that as my animal mascot and blend the magical genres together? I jumped into research about the majestic bird in order to confirm if it was truly the best decision.

 

 

As I researched, I discovered that there were so many other fantastic meanings behind the owl that I could focus on instead of the weaker link to fantasy, through the supernatural. For example, one of the key things owls symbolize is powerful intuition, which is something I want to associate with and makes perfect sense of me (good at determining what looks and feels visually). It’s also an excellent quality to have because it shows reliability: future employers and clients can trust me to complete projects well thanks to intuitive decision-making. Independent thinking is also something I think I embody since I often find that I am most productive when working by myself and I like to create unique things rather than follow trends.

 

“The owl spirit animal represents the free thinker, the oddball, and the quintessential entrepreneur. Owls see what others do not. “

 

As a spirit guide, owls encourage you to stay true to your ideas, which is the third big meaning I am taking from it. Not only is this encouraging for future clients since it shows that they have input and the core of the idea is theirs, but it also portrays how I approach my own ideas and projects: in a way that is honest to my intentions and values. With that, I knew that the owl was the right animal for my brand and I started looking at such logos for inspiration.

 

 

From these logos, I realised that I couldn’t just have an owl since this would be too vague and misleading about my line of work. To link it back to creativity and art, I added another element and also thought of the brand name – The Canvas Owlet. A blank canvas has a lot of meaning, it is where all creative ideas start and the first obstacle that any artist needs to face. It is a tool and a challenger. How do I fill this blank space? I love that it represents creativity and the line between idea and reality because it is how all art and animation are brought to fruition, which is ideal for my brand identity, being an animator and illustrator. I have put ‘owlet’ for now since, like the baby owl, I am still learning to fly and am a junior animator for now. Seeing this will constantly remind me to push harder and improve so that one day, I can change it to ‘Canvas Owl’ instead – a great motivator and a way to be more honest about who I am.

As expected, after idea generation and brand meaning outline, sketching and concept art came next. This was the part I was most looking forward to as I finally get to design my very own logo, and instead of jumping in blind like the last two times, this one is more thought out and personal.

 

*̩̩̥͙　-•̩̩͙-ˏˋ⋆  Creating the Logo  ⋆ˊˎ-•̩̩͙-　*̩̩̥͙

 

 

In my notebook, I sketched out various combinations of an owl and a canvas. I wanted something professional and minimal, but also slightly cartoonish and fun to show what kind of animation I like to do (fantastical and 2D). I also went back to my mood board and found that the cute characters were most interesting to me so I drew the owl with simple shapes and big round eyes.

 

 

As you can, the highlighted ones (sketchy backgrounds) are the designs that I liked the best. When looking at the second one, I was reminded more of a logo GIF because of the owl’s position, which suggests movement like waving or peeking out of the canvas. The first design is more like a finalised, static logo. I thought it would be fun to merge the two and create a plan for a logo animation as well so that I could incorporate my earlier plan of adding in motion. My concept sheet features art for both the logo and animation but I knew that I would have to create the final logo first because it would be part of the animation and needed to be finalised beforehand.

 

 

Shown above is my plan for the animation, which was to have the canvas appear and turn first before the owl pops out in a smooth motion that blends with the spin. After spinning, the owl dives down and turns into a splash of colour, which transforms into the final version. This incorporates my plan to use fluid paint-like movement and also has significance artistically: the idea is born of the canvas but goes further and becomes its own. You could also see it as the journey of animation from the canvas to reality, from paper to life etc. In the end, the owl looks different because it is something new but still has the original idea at its core, hence why the shape is square, like that of a canvas. I really enjoyed coming up with this idea because it looks fun but there is a deeper meaning under the surface, which is one of my favourite things about any form of art. Meaning adds more personality, no matter if the subject is a piece of literature, a film, illustration, character or poem. A message isn’t required but, in my opinion, usually makes the art better!

To create the final logo, I used Adobe Illustrator, which is ideal for vector-based art such as logos and graphic design. It was more of a struggle than expected! I didn’t want to simply trace my concept art because the form wasn’t perfect so I first attempted to join together shapes to create the outline.

 

 

 

This wasn’t the shape I wanted and the lines were very crooked and sharp in some areas. I tried to zoom in very close and move the vector points to fix the issue but to no avail. There were still a few lumps and it still wasn’t the shape I wanted, in terms of the paint splodges at the bottom.

 

 

I deleted this version and started again with the only method I could see, tracing my sketch. I used it as a guide and tried my best to create straight, smooth lines, tweaking anything that I didn’t like afterwards. This technique took me much further and I was finally able to produce a logo that I liked the look of as a whole.

 

 

 

With the logo design ready, it was time for a massive step forwards in creating the brand by deciding on the colours. I also took this opportunity to choose a font as well, since they go side by side as key visual aspects on the website and other platforms.

 

*̩̩̥͙　-•̩̩͙-ˏˋ⋆  Colour & Font Considerations  ⋆ˊˎ-•̩̩͙-　*̩̩̥͙

 

We had some time to explore these aspects within lesson, where I refreshed my memory on colour theory and gathered more knowledge on how colour plays a role in a logo or brand style. Businesses rely on general associations with various colours to carry across a particular emotion, idea or message to their audience but they also sometimes use finer, specific colour meanings to add to their brand. Every choice is thought out carefully and even the various shades and tones of the logo, backgrounds and other visual aids make a difference in how the brand is interpreted overall. I explored this in my logo research but as a media student, I was already quite aware of these tactics – it isn’t just in advertisement and business that this is used, but in pretty much every part of the creative industry. Across the board, colour plays a vital role in pre-production and production. Click to see in full (↓)

 

 

I was happy to find that my favourite colours have meanings that work with my brand and what I want kind of impression I want to put forward. Purple is a rich, deep colour in my opinion and is mostly associated with royalty, fantasy and creativity, which is ideal since I want to present my creative ideas and love of magic. The fantastical genre is also complex and mysterious, which fits into the purple aesthetic. One of the main reasons that I’m going into animation is the freedom to create anything and entertain escapism through art and cinema. Since I was a child, animated films provided a whimsical doorway to other worlds which was one of the most enjoyable parts of my childhood and I would really like to spread that same happiness to the young generations of the future, which is why yellow is a perfect secondary colour. It is complementary to purple and highlights the aspects of my brand that aren’t as explicit as the other ones, such as optimism and awareness. When I was looking at these charts, these were the colours that I was certain I wanted to include but I knew that there was a high chance that there would be a third or even fourth since a palette with just two colours isn’t enough for an entire brand. Purple was always going to be the main one though, even if I hadn’t quite decided what specific purple it would be.

 

 

With two colours roughly decided, I went to one of my favourite sites in terms of creative tools, Coolors. I have used it for numerous projects and it provides an extremely insightful way to view, explore and create palettes. When you enter the website, the first thing that you see is a randomised palette, which you can change entirely by pressing the space bar but there are also features along the top and side that allow you to see further details. I love that you can save favourite palettes for future reference and you can look through Coolor’s library of ready-made ones too, it’s a very instinctive program and has helped me a lot in the past.

 

 

I started flicking through random combinations and stopping on any that had purple or yellow to see if there was a particular shade that I liked. I landed on a beautiful lavender and deep purple, to which I added a blue-purple and pale yellow. I wanted to see how the purple interacted with the other colours since even the smallest of variants can create a shift in the mood that the palette puts forward. You can see the colours blended together if you want, which is something that really helps me visualise how they would be applied to a cohesive piece (like a site or branding sheet).

 

 

If I didn’t like a specific version of a colour, I could click on the ‘view shades’ option of its square and make it darker or lighter, which could easily change the tone of the entire palette. It’s also cool to see a monochrome palette of the colours in case that’s something that I might like and want to use.

 

 

Whilst this palette is nice, I didn’t really like the blue, which reminded me a lot of hospitals for some reason and made a pretty muddy colour when blended with the yellow. I decided that I would need to experiment in a different way so that I could better envision how my logo would look with the different combinations. I found a more specific colour chart, designed for brand design, and got to work in Adobe, testing different palettes and playing around mostly with warmer colours that worked with my favourite purples.

 

 

 

Strangely enough, the very first palette that I applied and created three different versions of was my favourite. I think that it stands out the most but the colours are also balanced, unlike some of the other combos which have one that is more overbearing than the rest. The addition of pink means that I have added a warm, sensitive but modern aspect to my brand and I love how it looks alongside the purple. It creates an analogous amalgam and the yellow is the direct opposite (complimentary) so overall the palette is very stable and easy on the eyes. I decided to test this further in Coolors and started out by seeing how it looks to people with different types of colour blindness. Fortunately, the colours are all distinguishable and still look nice even when altered sightly which is probably due to the nice variety of luminance.

 

 

 

 

Coolors also has a tool where you can check the contrast of your palette for text, which isn’t super useful when applying it to a logo or other graphic but can come massively in handy for websites. I haven’t planned that far ahead so I don’t know exactly what my backgrounds will look like to test the text colour on top, but it doesn’t hurt to try out and have it as a reference for later on. As established, the main/central colour is purple so that is what I tested as a background colour for most of the checks.

 

 

Yellow or white are the better options for text, which I expected. If I choose to have a dark background for any location on my site, the obvious choice for any writing on top would be a bright, visible colour because contrast is most important when it comes to reading. I also tried some combos with a pink background and even a white background, which is a very likely option at this point considering all of my website inspirations thus far (can be found in the Industry Report blog as examples).

 

 

 

With that, my colour palette was decided and I am really happy with the main three choices. However, I did say that I would experiment and try to create different versions of my logo as well, since this bulks up the brand, gives me more options to choose from for different platforms and purposes and shows development (which is something I want to show through my ideas, as a creative, and will help make a stronger impression on my audience). So, from the row with the different logo versions of my chosen palette, I chose the first two and applied different outlines and border styles to them to see what kind of results that would make and if I could use anything to upgrade the final versions.

 

 

 

Animated characters, particularly in children’s TV, have bold, distinctive outlines to make them more fun, exaggerated and visible against the backgrounds. I thought it would be an interesting homage to pay by adding in such an outline, or even a subtle one to make the elements of the logo stand out more, alas, nothing felt more striking than the originals. All of the outlines felt too distracting or out of place, so I have decided to stick with the simple versions, which are most effective anyway. Since purple is the main colour, the first logo is going to be used the most and needs a fun background to bring out the deep purple, whilst the second logo needs a darker colour so that it can pop as a light pink. These ideas made me think of day and night and the fact that the owl is a nocturnal animal, which is quite funny since animators are sometimes called this a joke due to staying up late to finish work. I also like the soothing effect this contrast makes which works well with the position of the owl (relaxed/in thought).

 

 

 

You’ll notice that I also added some words and phrases underneath each. These are like the logo ‘aesthetics’ and are ideas and feelings that come to mind when I look at each one. I think that adding a few simple words can really help paint a picture or mood sometimes, and this is a nice addition to the overall brand. In terms of when exactly I’ll be using the other version, I haven’t quite figured it out yet. I like the idea of having different logos to pick from and I think my icon is recognisable in almost any colour style but generally, this is used for special events or collaborations. Perhaps if I ever start a second Youtube channel for behind-the-scenes or something of that sort, I can use this other logo but for now, it’s great to have in reserve!

With that, I’d like to present the final (ish) logo. It doesn’t yet have text but that will be added in the following section.

 

 

Fonts are another incredibly important part of building a brand since depending on the chosen one, the viewer can receive an entirely different impression of the business. The type of text, slant, size and other elements can evoke different and specific thoughts, feelings and associations. And considering there are thousands of each, the number of combinations opens up a plethora of themes that can be applied purely through the text. I did consider having just my name or my brand name as the logo since I have seen a lot of portfolios with that principle but for now, I want to go all the way and have fun with my brand since I’ll most likely change it to something more professional in the future. When choosing a font for anything, the main thing to consider is if it matches with the desired message or look, i.e the aesthetic. For example, you wouldn’t expect to see a rigid, stretched-out, sci-fi-looking font used as the title for a florist’s page since that doesn’t feel cohesive at all. The font, like the colours and other visuals, should reflect what the brand stands for and what the person does, so in the florist’s case, you’d expect something cursive, twiny and elaborate, like the tendrils of a vine or the details or a flower. There are deeply rooted associations for different types of text that we harbour in our subconscious and even without realising it, we make assumptions about a person or business based on the text of their site, business card or logo. We automatically think of certain qualities such as creativity, reliability and even what type of work is done!

 

 

Canvas Owlet should present several of these qualities – I want it to be friendly, unique, progressive, creative and modern, so clearly there is going to be some convergence here. I predicted that a lot of my design work would take place in Photoshop, so that’s where I went for my initial font exploration. Using my brand name as the text, I started applying different font types and looking out for any styles that I liked the look of. My goal here was not to choose a singular font straight away, but rather to see if I can find something I like the look of and obtain a direction for further research.

 

 

There is quite a large variety here with some serif and san-serif fonts, some completely capitalised and some small and calligraphic and also some print and some in hand-writing. Out of these options, I quite like the 8th, 9th and 10th choices, which as predicted, means I am steering clear of the boring default fonts, the straight, blocky fonts and the extremely stylised ones such as the last two (Egyptian and military vibes?). To be clear, this is simply some experimentation for the logo text, not the text I am using for my site. I plan to choose from the available ones provided by WordPress for that unless there is an option to upload my own, in which case I will choose a paragraph front face as well. With a moderate objective for my desired font, I set off in search of a site where I could scroll through free-to-use, downloadable examples. Google Fonts was the clear first choice, but something prompted me to click on a different search result: a website called Font Space.

 

 

I found so many cool fonts and the website itself is a gem of a find! It has tools like transparent-bg download, changing the colour and size and also saving favourite fonts to your personal collection. On top of that, the site also has an in-depth categorical search system, allowing you to narrow down the style and see what’s popular and new. I immediately clicked on the ‘calligraphy’ tag to see what they had – here are some of the ones that caught my eye immediately and I saved first (in order from left to right: Snow Puppets by Billy Argel, Crazy Summer by Billy Argel, Lovely Melody by R Studio and Aster Love Brush Script by Solidtype).

 

 

       

 

I love the cursive style and the fourth one even looks like it was painted with a brush, as if on a real canvas! The problem was that I quickly realised that all of these fonts were only available for personal use and would have to be bought for commercial use. Luckily, Font Space had a solution for that too and I simply had to tick the ‘Commerical-use’ option on the navigation bar to be provided with only 100% free-to-use fonts. With this search, I honed in on the brush-stroke style that I liked from last time (in order, Richie Brusher by cove703, Fake Serif by Khurasan, Hey October by Khurasan and Ontel by Khurasan).

 

 

       

 

 

Finally, here are some of my favourites from the ‘whimsical’ category, which I clicked on partly out of curiosity as to what styles that would encompass but also because the word itself is something I would love to infer through my brand. (Examples: Calamity Jane NF by Nick’s Fonts, Life Savers by Pablo Impallari, Ribeye by Astigmatic One Eye Typographic Institute, Luna by Carolina Mejia Villegas, Souci Sans by Nick’s Fonts, Ape Mount by wepfont).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, there is no way to choose a front without actually seeing it in combination with the logo. As I said earlier, Font Space offers the user free downloads of a particular font as a PNG image with or without a background. You can also change the colour of the preview, however, there is no option to paste a specific HEX so I didn’t use this and just stuck to black. In Canva, I inputted my logo and copy and pasted all of my chosen fonts, moving and sizing up when necessary after which I narrowed down the selection to this.

 

 

I had a really tough time looking through all of these combinations and having to decide. All of the calligraphy ones which I love the style of so much look great, but draw too much attention away from the logo and don’t exactly match. Some are very clearly more suited to the owl than others, such as the sixth one, which makes the seventh all the more odd-looking and out of place (seven was definitely out toward the beginning). Truth be told, however, each one has its merits and brings a different feel to the logo overall, which is why I struggled greatly in my contemplation and even asked for a second opinion. My final choice ended up being the one that I knew was most fitting deep down but refused to admit because of my love for the first three options: the very last one! Combination #8 has a curve, round appeal which makes the logo more professional and whimsical at the same time, which is an idea that I want to hone in on. I love the curl of the ‘C’ and the little details like the ends of the letters which make the font so unique. It is called ‘Souci Sans’ and I downloaded the font right away, uploading it to Canva soon after, which is where I’ll be experimenting and creating more digital brand material.

 

 

Here is the main, finalised logo which combines the name and mascot of my brand. When adding the text, I made ‘Owlet’ slightly bigger than ‘Canvas’ so that they balanced nicely, rather than having the second word sit in the middle and break the square shape of the whole image. The yellow background is most complimentary but I also have the option to export the second version with a transparent background so that I can add my logo anywhere, even if there is no yellow. I’m really pleased with my font choice and how my logo looks overall – it’s come a long way from that initial sketch of the lopsided owl and I think it reflects my style far better than TSP.

 

*̩̩̥͙　-•̩̩͙-ˏˋ⋆  Experimenting – Canva & Adobe  ⋆ˊˎ-•̩̩͙-　*̩̩̥͙

 

My logo research prior to all of this gave me a new perspective on how logos can be utilised in different ways, thus a newfound curiosity and desire to experiment appeared, which wasn’t there before for art in the realm of graphic design. To simplify, I am usually quite direct with the final result and how I want it to look when it comes to logos, motion graphics and other elements outside of illustration, but I didn’t want this to be the case for my brand. I want to keep an open mind and see what kind of results I can make when I use different techniques or just play around with the features of a program.

This is what I did in Adobe Illustrator first. Without any reference to the owl image that I used for my logo, I jumped in to create quite a different version with only the name of the brand.

 

 

I added a grid to the canvas and used the shape tool to create the line of circles. My goal was to use basic shapes to create the initials of Canvas Owlet and throw in further appeal using the primary two colours.

 

 

 

I tried with and without outlines, and whilst it was cool to see the guides of how I constructed the letters, I decided that it was better to leave them out so that I could add something inside the two letters. Below you can see the additions (I went for a different font to suit the geometric style).

 

 

 

I also played around with the colour combinations and made some pretty cool logos! This one is minimal and smart and even though I won’t be using it in my final brand style, I am pleased with the outcome and that I tried something new.

 

 

Naturally, I also wanted to see Canva’s capabilities in logo design, since I hadn’t tried that out yet. I already had my logo so I played around with no specific result in mind, trying to see the extent of the templates and what kinds of things I could have created if I had started out with just the free version of this design platform. I love how customisable everything is and even if I used templates for almost all of the ‘rough’ examples, I could change whatever I wanted, even the colours of the stickers and elements. It’s a brilliant tool; Canva even lets you upload all of the basics for your own brand kit, including font styles for headings, subheadings and body, colour palettes and logos! I used this later on, but first, here are the examples I created for fun (please keep in mind that a lot of them are quite bad by design standards).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There we have it – logo experimentation and development for Canvas Owlet, something I did not expect to do and that I’m very glad to have tried out. By seeing the possibilities and using different techniques, I had a chance to view my brand from other angles and consider how effective my current design decisions are. I never thought to have moving elements in my final brand design for example, but now that I have tried it out for a logo, some ideas have sparked for other areas where I could use videos/GIFs or even transitions. I won’t be using any of the examples I created above, since they really aren’t as effective as the logo I already have, but the knowledge that there is always a backup location where I can design things in case I don’t have the programs (or the creativity at that moment) is quite useful to me.

Continuing in Canva, I went ahead with the actual work: creating logo variations and other extras that I might need for the website or for my accounts on social media. I used some of the versions I had made earlier, such as the day and night colour alterations and their coloured circle backgrounds. Canva allows you to keep adding pages in one document, which means that I can organise things neatly. I have created a folder for my branding, where I have a separate document for each different piece of brand material. I won’t be going into depth with all of them for now, as quite a lot is on my branding sheet, which you will see both later in this blog and on my website. I would like to give a logo example, however, to showcase what I mean visually.

 

 

I have also created a couple of banners, which once again, will be displayed on my website in their entirety: for now, I want to give a small preview with two examples. I used templates for some, which I then altered by colour and element positioning, whereas others are made completely from scratch.

 

 

 

I think banners are an awesome way to ‘spice up’ the brand; make it more interesting by having material of different compositions and formats. They are also useful to have for multiple platforms which use that size as a cover on the profile page and who knows – advertisement is a possibility, and it’s good to be prepared!

 

┌─────── ∘°∘♡∘°∘ ───────┐

Research & Application

└─────── °∘∘♡∘∘° ───────┘

 

As already established, good brand identity in its consistency and purposeful design is the key to a successful brand. Often, as a business grows and receives more clientele, they find themselves in need of a set of pre-defined brand guidelines to coordinate their brand’s portrayal, in which case a brand style guide is created! Sometimes known as a branding kit or brand kit, the brand style guide is the document where all visual, textual and otherwise relevant rules are compiled in a clear, concise manner. This unified document is often sent out to other companies who want to utilise the brand in a campaign and require guidelines to adhere to the brand identity and make sure it is portrayed correctly.

 

 

Alongside ensuring everything is coherent and consistent, harmonizing all brand departments to the overall brand personality boosts morale, showcases reliability and commitment and is more professional, likely to draw in more customers as a benefit. Additionally, upholding brand integrity makes it more easily identifiable and adds a level of solidity to the business: almost showcasing that they know themselves and are rooted in the industry as surely as any other. Whilst the presentation of this guide is usually free to be altered to reflect the brand, there are some things which are pretty standard, including but not limited to:

 

• Mission statement, values and/or vision
• Target audience
• Logo guidelines
• Colour palette
• Typography
• Brand voice/tone
• Other relevant visual media

 

It’s also important to note that there is a difference in the level of detail of this information and how it is presented. For example, the image I have included above is a brand style sheet (another example below), but if necessary, and often the case with bigger organisations, the brand style guide can be a whole booklet, filed with the key data but also aesthetically designed to match the brand. It may well include quote pages, extra mood boards and other decorative or helpful additions. I would love to make something like this, as it is more in-depth and gives a more tasteful outlook of the brand’s characteristics. Unfortunately, I have neither the need nor the time for something so detailed. For inspiration, I have done a little research, however.

 

 

The branding style sheet that I have chosen to analyse is for a jewellery company called Wolf Circus, which I have linked here. It immediately caught my eye because of the sleek, minimal design of the logo and text and also because of the way that the style guide is structured. You scroll through with a bar similar to the kind on YouTube, which makes it feel simultaneously like a video and a book and I think that adds a more professional but also a personal element. Carrying on in terms of structure, the minimalism is consistent in the format of the text and images. They occupy the space in a clean, easy-to-read manner and don’t take up the entire availability of each page, not overloading the viewer with too much to read and keeping the tone modern. The use of negative space enhances the feel of the sheet and allows the viewers’ eyes to travel naturally over the page, settling on each individual section and scanning the aesthetic at a glance with the scrolling option. They have an entire page dedicated to their typeface and the guide itself uses their primary font, Sans Serif: Avenir Ligh, which is appealing in a way that matches their style (easy on the eye) and further examples of how the logo, colours, patterns and even advertisements should be presented are provided towards the back. It is succinct, thoughtful and stylish and all of the information is carried across beautifully! Wolf Circus have understood that the brand name carries weight and meaning even in the guide that talks through this, and they have expressed it effectively.

Of course, after research comes application and I was eager to try this out for Canvas Owlet. Using everything I had accumulated so far in Canva, I started a new document and used two different templates to create something unique but still presentable and efficient. As everything was coming together, I started to get a real gist for the aesthetic and look of my brand overall, and the more I added, the clearer it became.

 

 

Everything linked together in a satisfying way visually, and thanks to my earlier brainstorming, the tone of voice and meanings behind the creative decisions also linked together. You can see more of the logo variations I worked on and highlighted words that showcase the major aspects of Canvas Owlet, such as ‘whimsical’, which links to the fantastical/supernatural side that is shown through the owl. You’ll also notice that I have expanded the palette, which is due to the fact that three colours weren’t enough for the design elements (e.g. mood board and secondary imagery that may be part of the website).

 

 

I wanted to bump up the colour combination and provide some more options, which I think fill everything out nicely and round the look of the brand off. I’m really proud of my visual compilation at the bottom, which I did by gathering patterns within the colour scheme and adding more concrete, specific elements on top. Even though they’re quite simple, they carry across the fun, magical feel that I want my viewers to see.

On that note, it was time to start building my website. I had already made a start in one of Jake’s lessons, dedicated to helping us start in WordPress, which is where our college blogs are hosted. Despite the research, I have done and all of the website builders that I have found which seem easier to get the knack of and perhaps even more customisable, I have decided to go ahead with WordPress. I don’t think I’ll need a fully functioning brand throughout university and most likely afterwards since I’ll be working in studios and a brand like the one I’ve created is more so for freelance. Because of this, I predict that I’ll be creating a whole new website from scratch and simplifying it to just my name or something like that, which is when I’ll move to a different builder such as Wix or Squarespace. Plus, this is a great way to cement my work for this brief and always have the evidence available, whereas if I were to change it, the full application of Canvas Owlet would not exist.

After specifying my intent for the site, setting up an account and domain and launching WordPress, I began scrolling through the available templates and seeing if my choice was among them (I knew that there would probably be more options later on and that this list simply comprised of WordPress’s recommendations based on the date I had provided). Here are some of the ones that I considered, along with some quick annotations.

 

 

 

 

The theme that I ended up choosing was a different one altogether: one specifically designed for creative presentation called Appleton. This fact swayed me, but I also really liked the seamlessness of the layout and the fact that a massive picture took up most of the page – the visual aspect is very important to me!

 

 

Surprisingly, I was a little lost when I started editing. The WordPress interface looked familiar but it was an entirely different experience having full freedom over the customisation of the site and there were so many options and tools that I was a little swamped by the customisation, to say the least. It took a couple of google searches and some exploration to get my footing but I soon had the basics down, which was most important to me since I wasn’t going for a complicated, fancy website, just something simple which gets the job done. I altered between gathering work and setting up the skeleton of the website, making sure to add the essentials like my logo and colour palette into the theme section so that they were integrated into the website. When I’m finished with everything, I will link it down below.