This week I explored the branding and visual identity section of visual design and took the opportunity to re-vamp the logo for the organization I am interning with, [with]media.
The Logo
After reading the chapter “Branding and Visual Identity” in Robin Landa’s Graphic Design Solutions, I knew that the logo had to be identifiable, flexible, and accessible. I decided to go with a logotype for the main logo and a lettermark for things like thumbnails and profile pictures.
Naturally, type would be extremely important. I chose to have two distinct typefaces, as Ellen Lupton’s webpage Thinking With Type suggests, I want to “strive for contrast rather than harmony, looking for emphatic differences rather than mushy transitions.”
I chose a nice serif font for the [with] portion of the logotype since I wanted it to be inviting, yet formal. Then I had to adjust some of the kerning to make it optical, which is best for headlines (Lupton). For the MEDIA part of the logotype I chose to go with a bold and uniform sans serif for a more modern feel. This “MEDIA” will change to “TV”, “NEWS”, or “RADIO”, depending on which channel of the company it is.
I also wanted to have a smaller logotype for a profile picture or icon. This is with the [with] compressed into a single w, still keeping the brackets to imply a sort of cohesiveness or community.
While it is simple, I decided to go with a white on black color scheme to keep in line with my main three objectives. I want the name of the company, along with the unique way [with] is grouped together, to be identifiable in the simplest form so that it could be identifiable in many other forms, like the variations below. This way, the [with]media logo can be recognizable and uniform across its many variations.
Also, a huge goal of the company is to promote accessibility, so I wanted to be sure that the logo is as accessible as possible. While the color variations will not be accessible to every seeing person, the white on black is as clear as possible and uniform across most color blindnesses.
The Advertisement
According to Landa, every advertisement seeks to inform, persuade, promote, provoke, or motivate the audience to support a cause or purchase a brand. Since [with]media is a an up and coming brand, I wanted to lean towards the inform and promote aspects to get into the viewer’s mind what [with]media is.
I brainstormed the content of the ad by playing with different phrases that include the word [with] in it. After I shared some initial concepts with my supervisor and the founder of the company, we landed on these final five.
The typical elements of an ad include the headline, body copy, tagline, and signoff. I played around with different ways of mixing around these elements, but ultimately stuck to a fairly simple design. I even decided to get rid of the tagline “for people with disabilities…and everyone else” since I felt that the poster already gave off that information (and any more at this point would be an information overload). What is most important is the the [with] stands out in the hierarchy, since it is the [with] that sets this brand apart.
I am happy with how it turned out, since it establishes a connection to what the brand is (since there isn’t a prior connection) and it clearly states what sets this media company apart form the rest. In the future, I hope to design more ads that target the emotional benefits, but like I said I wanted to drill in what the brand is first.
Bonus Animated Logo!
Since I already had the Illustrator files ready, I decided to make a little animation to the logotype to give it a little more life. I was inspired by example #20 of the article 40 Creative and Memorable Logo Designs to Inspire You. Here is the GIF that I ended up with after reviewing how to use AfterEffects again. While it’s not much, I think it is a nice simple way to open some of our first video pieces.
Landa, Robin. Graphic Design Solutions. 6th ed., Cengage, 2019.
Thinking With Type. Ellen Lupton, 2009, http://thinkingwithtype.com/. Accessed 11 Feb. 2021.
Darling, Kayla. “40 Creative and Memorable Logo Designs to Inspire You.” Visme, Easy WebContent, Inc., https://visme.co/blog/logo-samples/. Accessed 25 Feb. 2021.
Emma Lao 