WHAT IS A BRAND AND BRANDING?
A brand is a product, service or concept that is publicly distinguished from other products, services or concepts so that it can be easily communicated and usually marketed.
Branding is the process of creating and disseminating the brand name, its qualities and personality.
ASSIGNMENT 1 - ONE HOUR PITCH PRESENTATION
Initially we were asked to fill up this sheet and come up with three pitches which we had to further present to the class. Out of the three pitches we had to go forward with one, and further work on it's branding.
For the three pitches, I initially started looking at the problems that already exists in the market and there's no solution to them also.
PITCH 1: DELIVERY COMPANY BASED IN NORTH EAST INDIA
This logistics company aims at handling deliveries in north east India. It aims to solve problems like:
- Improper connectivity
- Labour Scarcity
- Constant Precipitation
- Hilly Terrain
- Uncertain climatic conditions
Beyond speed delivery further aims at creating a fast, safe and reliable delivery experience .
Embarked with an intent of revolutionising the traditional implementations of logistic services. Gateway to meet your business’s logistics requirements in a much reliable and fast environment.
I observed the need of this service in the market because I've myself experienced this as a small business owner. I've seen my clients struggling a lot with getting the courier packages delivered at home. I even asked 7-8 people living in north east India about their experience and they said that there's no efficient logistics company in north east India. I asked them if any solution related to the same comes to their mind and they said that hiring locals and increasing number of hubs was something that can really solve this problem .
PITCH 2 - LET'S GO NUTS
"Let's go Nuts" is a tagline that I thought for this company. The premium offerings of this company is :
- Dry fruits and seeds mix to solve different problems
- Recipes that incorporates ‘the mix’ and taste
- Customised mix according to consumer’s demand
- Customised ‘mix’ diet plan
This company aims to provide it's customers with healthy dry fruits and seeds mix to solve different problems. It further aims at educating it's consumers about the benefits of different seeds and dry fruits.
I observed the need for this kind of brand in the market because the consumers aren't really aware of the benefits dry fruits and seeds carry. Also, I've seen my father been involved in the dry fruits industry since last 30 years and my takeaways from this industry was that it is very unorganised and mismanaged. A brand like this aims to earn it's revenue from it's products , providing recipes to it's customers and also making customised mixes according to consumer's demands and requirements .
PITCH 3 - SWAAD EXPO
SWAAD EXPO is an Indian food festival which brings together delicacies from different states of India at one stop.
From Nadir Monji of Kashmir to Appam of Kanyakumari, this food expo has it all.
The expo further aimed at having different folk artists:
It also aimed at having #PEENAPILAANA section, where beverages from different states would also be there.
The other unique section of the expo had to be the #SWAADGHARKA section, where home cooks from different parts of the country would come together and serve a large number of people.
LEARNINGS AND REFLECTIONS
While making the pitches for the very first time , I realised about the research that goes behind it.
While brainstorming for the ideas, I got to know about so many problems that does exist in the market and there are literally no solutions for it.
When one is considering to do branding for a brand one needs to know the brand story and everything that goes behind making the brand.
FORM SIMPLIFICATION : LESS IS MORE
Brief: To choose an image and then further simplify it.
I selected this image because I really liked the position of elephant in this.
It is an amazing shot and I further wanted to work on simplifying it.
I started simplifying this image by taking a gateway sheet and tracing it.
The above iterations were quite minimal and clean but faculty advised me do more iterations because they weren’t enough and appropriate.
Following are some more iterations I did so that I could up with the finalised sketch.
FINALISED SKETCH
DIGITISED SKETCH
LEARNINGS AND REFLECTIONS
It was really fun to iterate on a composition with reference to the concept of less is more.
Initially, I messed up with the compositions but while working on them continuously I was able to learn about the project brief and was further able to achieve the desired final outcome.
M A R K E T I N G
We had some sessions by Shaileja Ma'am who really helped us to know so much more about marketing by letting us know about the terminologies of marketing and also telling us about the marketing strategies of different brands.
BRAND RESEARCH
LINK TO PRESENTATION : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I98T-0ZgFGOirbnfFMD-8pbueaAkbJMv/view?usp=sharing
TYPES OF LOGO
We were introduced to different types of logos and it really helped us to look at the logos and identify their types.
This was the research I did on different types of logos :
After knowing what are different types of logos, we were assigned to find logos of competitors of our brand.
Following were logos of my competitors :
Further, we were asked to categorise them into different types of logos :
After discussing with whole class, we found out that combination logos are the most common type of logos. It is used by multiple brands because it allows the user to see a word mark that depicts the brand name along with a visual that creates a visual identity for the brand.
MOODBOARD
Initially, I created a digital mood board while doing my brand research, at that moment ab BRAND MOOD BOARD meant displaying of brand's identity and products to me.
When I took the feedback from faculty, they said the actual products shouldn't have been the hero of my mood board. I could have used different textures, techniques and maybe could create a better layout.
LECTURE BY GINU MA'AM
Most of my batchmates struggled with creating a mood board so Ginu Ma'am from Fashion Design department who made us realise the importance of this efficient communication tool.
When she said that you can use mood boards to express the vision you have for the project, it made so much sense to me and made the concept of moof board very clear.
These were the takeaways from her lecture :
PHYSICAL MOOD BOARD
Then, I decided to create a physical mood board which would be a combination of printouts and different physical materials.
Initially, I considered the brand colours and the textures. I used textures to represent my brand's identity. I used elements like brown papers, brown threads , cane , leaves , jute that will further represent the rawness and originality of my brand.
I also created a texture using oil paints and OHP sheet and that represented the transparency of my brand.
All the elements hopefully did justice to the brief.
FEEDBACK:
The faculty really appreciated the variety of materials I'd used in the mood board. They really liked the mood board as a composition also.
LEARNINGS AND REFLECTIONS:
I learned to represent my brand's identity through a mood board.
The mood board helped me throughout my process and acted as my inspiration.
Different elements when composed together make something really great .
It helped me find my focus and became an amazing tool through out my process.
NAMING TECHNIQUES
We were taught consider the following points when we working on naming the brand:
Keep it Simple
Acronyms
Phonetics
Name
Alliteration
Tone of Voice
A brand name seems very simple when one looks it from the outside but way too many iterations and thinking goes behind one brand name.
Following were the brand names, I considered while iterating names for my brand.
After multiple feedbacks and suggestions, I finalised the name NUTOPIA for my brand .
The brand was derived from NUTS + UTOPIA which means paradise.
So, NUTOPIA ultimately meant, PARADISE OF NUTS.
LOGO DESIGNING
Initially, to start with the process, the brief was to create some iterations for the final logo.
The idea was to make iterations for each type of logo, from Wordmark to combination logos, I tried to cover each category in my iterations.
After multiple iterations, I decided to go with this idea:
The idea of the logo was to create a visual identity for users and introduce them to main components of brand.
According a research, the 4 most consumed dry fruits in India are Cashews, almonds, walnuts and groundnut.
I wanted to incorporate all of them in one logo.
DIGITISING THE LOGO
Taking one idea forward, I tried multiple iterations digitally as well. Initially each and every iteration possessed one or the other feedback.
After continuous faculty feedback and guidance, I was advised to keep the shaping of the logo proper. I was advised to not forget the proportions of an almond.
I customised type for this logo which was inspired from cashew's shape.
I wanted to give a very raw and fun look to my logo. So I chose irregular placement for the composition.
Initially I was not able to achieve an accurate shape of walnut, therefore it wasn't doing much justice to the alphabet O.
I finally finished the one that went with the composition and where I was able to achieve the accurate shape of the walnut.
FINAL LOGO
Now I had to iterate on the colour variations, I wanted to go with a shade of brown only but still I wanted to see how will my logo look in different colours -:
I also took a printout of this document, to checkout the colours more efficiently, I further figured out that a shade of brown and green can be shortlisted for my logo.
After discussing the same with faculty, they suggested me to go for both of the colours,
they told me that both the colours does equal justice to my brand and it's logo.
So, the two colours that I went forward with were :
Further, I had to test out the scalability of my logo, background surfaces , do's and dont's and typeface variation which I did in my brand guideline.
Link to brand guideline: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XxxZMi4TWHlsipkAgc3MM9hK6OafU5e6/view?usp=share_link
LEARNINGS AND REFLECTIONS
This project really taught me how to identify the story of a brand.
Each brand has it's own identity and it is the most important thing for a brand.
A brand uses logo to make it's first impression and should definitely be a good one.
Iterations help one to achieve the desired outcome.
A logo represents consumer's expectations from a brand.
One needs to do proper research before making a logo for the brand.
Design is the silent ambassador of as brand.
- Paul Rand
Comments