Branding Process Step 4: Brand Design

Hey everybody! I am so glad to be joining you this Tuesday to break down the fourth step in my Branding Process post series. If you missed the first three steps, you can find them here: Step 1, Step 2, Step 3.

It’s more than just design and branding, it’s your peace of mind

Since we’re about halfway through the series, I just wanted to reiterate why I’m choosing to write about each step. My desire in starting my design studio is really to come alongside business owners. I want to offer quality design to spur their business forward by giving the peace of mind needed to focus on their goals and the day-to-day business needs while I create and take care of the design.

What I mean when I say quality design

I love design not only to create great logos, but to create logos that make an impact because they begin from a place of research and strategy. As you know from Step 3, I devote a week or so to researching for my client’s brand before I even touch pencil to paper. With the research and discovery phase, I start laying the foundation of strategy for the logo design. This is where quality logo and brand designs begin.

Go ahead – take a peek over my shoulder!

 

Welcome to my happy place—inside the workspace of Illustrator!

Illustrator is the program that I use to design logos, illustrations, patterns, and icons. Let’s dive into how I landed on the strategy behind a recent brand and how that strategy led me to make specific design choices along the way to creating the final brand.

The Brand

Classroom To Career is a program that supports local educators and businesses. The program’s focus is to provide an opportunity for transitional kindergarten through high school staff and administrators to see what is going on outside of the classroom, and to help in business recruitment and retaining employees in the future.

Target Market

What I noticed right away is that the target market for Classroom To Career spans a wide range of demographics. Kindergarten to high school-aged students, as well as teachers and employers will all be interacting with this brand. This prompted me to consider a logo design that embodies the characteristics of being educational and well-developed to appeal to the high school-aged students and employers, yet playful and engaging for the younger audience and teachers.

How is this research implemented within the brand?

Let’s start with the wordmark. The font choice is blocky with hard edges, giving it a bold, modern, and educational vibe. By keeping the words close together and creating separation only by the change in font weight and color, the wordmark now is strong enough to stand on its own, if needed. The tagline: A program of Leadership Sioux Center, gives the credibility necessary to catch the attention of potential employers.

The icon mark moves from a smaller “C” to a larger “C”, representing the students’ moving from grade to grade and eventually out into the workforce. In other words, from the classroom to the career. I chose a slick, straight font with softer edges for a more playful approach. Pictured below, simple and playful brand icons and patterns were created for print and marketing needs. This piece of the brand places a strong focus on education and learning, as this is where every career begins.

Color Choice

This brand needed to have similar design elements to its parent program—Leadership Sioux Center. I chose to accomplish this with color, as I knew the Classroom To Career brand had the potential to expand into its own personality. Using color to tie the two brands together gives both the space to be their own program, while still providing a link between the two. Knowing that the orange was already on the more playful side, I chose a deep navy to add contrast as well as a mature and developed feel. To add even more personality, an accent color of sky blue is used within branded materials, such as in the pattern shown above.

I hope you can see that target audience strategy and brand research is what drives every design decision that I make. Every detail (from font choice, to layout, to color) has purpose and drives the meaning of the brand as a whole.

Use the link below to get in touch! I’d love to chat about how we can dial in on the strategy behind your business and brand to add even more strength to your logo.

In two weeks, we’ll be looking closely at the project presentation step. This is the fun part for you as the client. See you then!

 

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