23 / 09 / 2024 — 30 / 10 / 2024 (Week 01 — Week 06)
Kim Seoyoon / 0357755
MKT 62404 / Brand Corporate Identity / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Task 2A & 2B / Logo
TABLE OF CONTENT
LECTURES
INSTRUCTIONS
TASK 2
FEEDBACK
REFLECTION
LECTURES
CLICK HERE TO VIEW WEEK 1-4 LECTURE NOTES
Week 05 (21/10/2024) : Positioning
Lecture 05: Positioning
- Process of positioning your brand in the minds of your customers.
- Referred to as a positioning strategy, brand strategy, or brand positioning statement.
"Creating a brand strategy is like drawing out a map, while positioning is determining your location and destination." Willis (2017)
Once a brand has been successfully positioned, it's notoriously difficult to reposition.
The goal of positioning is to create a unique impression in the customer's mind so that the customer associates something specific and desirable with your brand that is distinct from the rest of the market.
2. Different types of positioning strategies:
1. Arm wrestling
Taking on the market leader and beating them at their own game if there is a well-established market category with no clear leader. For example, Coke and Pepsi.
2. Big fish, smaller pond
The focus is on the niche market within a larger market that is underserved.
3. Reframe the market
Reframes an existing market in new terms. Makes benefits highlighted by previous market leaders irrelevant, or boring.
4. Change the game
Reserved for when there is no market category for what you do. You are the first of your kind and you get to invent your market. The advantage of this strategy is you'll be the default market leader. However, on the downside, without any major barriers, people may be able to copy you and beat you before the brand can establish itself.
3. How to determine positioning?
To create a position strategy, you must identify your brand's uniqueness first and then determine what differentiates you from your competition.
4. Positioning vs Differentiation
Positioning
- A strategic process that marketers use to determine the place or "niche" an offering should occupy in a given market.
- Marketers use the positioning process to identify the distinctive place they want a product or service to hold in the minds of a target market segment.
- Can be subtle and hard to detect.
Differentiation
- Closely related to positioning, but the process companies use to make a product or service stand out from its competitors.
- It is at work any time you are choosing between two products in the same category.
Effective positioning for a product or service is based on the differentiating characteristics or qualities that make the product/ service better than the competition in the minds of the target segment.
In identifying what makes your product/ service/ organization/ person unique and what differentiates it from the competition, one can take the necessary steps in the process to position strategically one's brand in the marketplace.
7 key steps to effectively clarify your positioning in the marketplace according to Bueno (2019):
1. Determine how your brand is currently positioning itself
2. Identify your direct competitors
3. Understand how each competitor is positioning their brand
4. Compare your positioning to your competitors to identify your uniqueness
5. Develop a distinct and value-based positioning idea
6. Craft a brand positioning statement
7. Test the efficacy of your brand positioning statement
How to create a brand positioning statement:
1. Target Customer
What is a concise summary of the attitudinal and demographic description of the target group of customers your brand is attempting to appeal to and attack?
2. Market Definition
What category is your brand competing in and in what context does your brand have relevance to your customers?
3. Brand Promise
What is the most compelling (emotional/ rational) benefit to your target customers that your brand can own relative to your competition?
4. Reason to Believe
What is the most compelling evidence that your brand delivers on its brand promise?
Example: "For [target customers], [company name] is the [market definition] that delivers [brand promise] because only [company name] is [reason to believe]."
You can create a tagline or slogan that helps establish the position you are looking to own after creating a strong brand positioning statement.
Fig 1.1 Example of Amazon's positioning statement and tagline, Week 5 (21/10/2024)
Positioning statements are for internal use. The statements guide the marketing and operating decisions of your business. A tagline is an external statement used in your marketing efforts. Insights from your positioning statement can be turned into a tagline, but it is important to distinguish between the two.
Conclusion
To position your brand in your customer's minds, you must start from within your business. Every member of your organization that touches the customers has to be the perfect expression of your position.
INSTRUCTIONS
Module Information Booklet
Task 2A& 2B–Logos (20% Individual)
Timeframe: Week 01 – Week 05 (Deadline Week 06)
A) Research & Analysis
Collect 28 logos and document them with analysis based on the criteria of:
- The type of logo
- Graphic elements used in the logo construction
- Colour schemes
- Type choice
B) Logo Design
1) Logo in BW, reverse & colour
2) Logo space rationalization & clearspace
3) Logo with strapline
4) Logo with rationale (brand ideals)
5) Logo minimum size
6) Brand primary & secondary colours
7) Logo/brand typeface(s)
8) Patterns derived from logo
9) Logo animation (GIF)
All gathered information (failures, successes, epiphanies, sketches, visual research, printouts, websites, images, charts, etc.) documented logically and chronologically in the portfolio for the duration of the project in one eportfolio post.
TASK 2A & 2B Logos
Week 1 / Introduction
Fig 2.1 Task 2 Introduction Slides, Week 1(23/09/2024)
Week 1 Activity
In the first week of Brand corporate identity, we were instructed to propose three different career options if we weren't becoming a designer and to answer the questions provided in the above slides. Below is my answer to those questions:
Fig 2.2 Career Options Ideas, Week 1(23/09/2024)
In the above document, I proposed three business ideas:
1. Custom Merchandiser
2. Blind Book Cafe
3. Music Truck
After the discussion and feedback from Ms Lilian, I decided to brand my business from the third idea (Music Truck). The main concept of this business is to sell recommended songs to the customers based on their stories, on a truck vehicle.
Week 2 / Brand Mind Maps
After week 1's activity, Ms Lilian instructed us to create two mindmaps based on our chosen idea from the first week. The first mindmap was based on the brand's business, while the second one focused on the brand name itself.
In the beginning, I was a little confused with the direction for both my mindmaps as I did not have a clear structure for my brand idea. Eventually looked into my mindmap in the wrong direction and had some amendments after the feedback session from the tutorial group session. Here are the initial draft of my mindmaps:
Fig 3.1 Draft Mindmaps, Week 2 (30/09/2024)
Mindmap after some changes:
Fig 3.1.2 Brand's Business Mindmap, Week 2 (30/09/2024)
Fig 3.1.3 Brand Name Mindmaps, Week 2 (30/09/2024)
Week 3 / Initial Logo Sketches
In the third week, we were asked to begin developing our brand ideas into logo sketching. The instruction was to explore different design variations from the ideas and keywords gathered in the mind-mapping stage. I sketched three A4 sheets of logos to present the two words 'Music' and 'Box' together.
For my brand, I wanted to give a character to the logo itself as a mascot as the brand strategy is to focus on the communication between customers and our brand so that we emphasize better their stories and preferences with suitable songs of recommendations. To achieve this, I tried sketching both typographic and mascot logos.
Here are some of the visual references that inspired my logo design.
Fig 3.3 Visual References, Week 3 (7/10/2024)
Below are the initial sketches I've done for week 3. The first and third pages were sketched using pencil but the second page was drawn with a marker as I wanted to try a different medium for a more bold look to the logo.
Fig 3.4.1 Logo Sketches Page 1, Week 3 (7/10/2024)
Fig 3.4.2 Logo Sketches Page 2, Week 3 (7/10/2024)
Fig 3.4.3 Logo Sketches Page 3, Week 3 (7/10/2024)
During the group discussion, I received feedback that I should push the idea of creating a mascot for the logo as it gives the fun and joyfulness the most among the logo sketches. I began to develop further with this idea further while also exploring the idea of a moving truck into the logo design.
Week 4 / Logo sketch development
In week 4, we showed developed logo sketches from the ideas that were chosen in the previous week. I mainly focused on refining the initial 'MB' on a 3D box, and a mascot vinyl driving a truck that has a shape of 'MB'. I added the lever to both logos as I thought it was the most effective way of representing the music box into the logo design.
Fig 3.5.1 Logo Development Sketch, Week 4 (14/10/2024)
Fig 3.5.2 Logo Development Sketch, Week 4 (14/10/2024)
Whilst finishing up my logo development I added a piece of a new design into the sketch sheet which was inspired from the UFO music box logo from week 3 (No.9–Fig 3.4) mixed with mascot designs which can be seen in Fig 3.6 below. Although this idea came into my mind a little later, the overall logo design was the most straightforward while showing the idea of vinyl record wearing a box impersonating as a living thing. The truck imagery was replaced with simpler leg design still conveying the idea of moving.
One of the factor that above designs was not as strong as the final choice was that the initial of 'MB' had dangers of being similar with existing brand logos like McDonald's or Marrybrown which could give a complete wrong impression as if it's a food chain to the viewer when first seeing the logo.
Fig 3.6 Logo Development Sketch, Week 4 (14/10/2024)
The new design focused more onto the illustrative part compared to typography so Ms Lilian advised to use a contrasting sans serif fonts for digitization stage so that both logomark and logotype does not crash with one another.
Week 5 / Logo Digitization
In Week 5, we had our final logo sketch digitized on Adobe Illustrator. I began with tracing the lines in rough style then added a textured brush onto the strokes as the overall direction was falling towards to the retro and analogue/ hand drawing style. I also tried three different types of fonts; handwritten font, serif, and sans serif to compare which type of font style suits the logo the most with clear legibility while also keeping the visual contrast between the type and the mark itself.
Here is my overall process on logo digitization with several type font trials:
Fig 4.1 Logo Digitization Process on Adobe Illustrator, Week 5 (21/10/2024)
My lecturer also advised that sans serif fonts fit well. She commented that I should try a sans serif font that is more versatile so that it fits the overall fun look of the logo.
Logo Structure & Adjustments
On the logo structure aspect, I was received feedback that I should relook into keeping the sizing and weight of certain elements within the mascot itself such as the size and placement of the eyes, the thickness of the lever stick and the legs.
Fig 4.2 Reconstructing logo, Week 5 (21/10/2024)
So instead of going with disconnected lines, I connected lines with closed ends and matched the thickness of the legs and the lever. Below shows the comparison of adjustment outcome:
Fig 4.3 Before and After Adjustments, Week 5 (21/10/2024)
Final Type Choice
For the typeface, I chose Gill Sans with Bold Extended Condensed font as my final choice to keep it bold and simple. The condensed width of each letter also allowed me to keep the overall look compact and clean. The stroke edges of this font also had slight flares which added funkiness matching with the logomark. Regarding to the placement of the text, I used a proper circle shape tool to apply text onto the path in a more organized manner rather than free handing the text pathway like how I did in the earlier stage.
Logo Variations
Fig 4.4 Text Placement, Week 5 (21/10/2024)
Fig 4.5 Logo Variation, Week 5 (21/10/2024)
For logo variations, initially I proposed three different layouts but the second one (marked with square in the corner) with horizontal text alignment below the logomark was excluded from submission as it had an awkward negative space between the logomark and the type.
Fig 4.5.2 Logo Variation with Extracted Elements, Week 5 (21/10/2024)
Additionally, I also created another variation using the extracted elements from the mascot design replacing the letter 'S' and 'O'. However to avoid disrupting the consistency, I kept this on hold for Task 3.
Logo Colours
Fig 4.6 Initial Colour Test, Week 5 (21/10/2024)
I used the same colours that I randomly picked with my likings for the final logo colour scheme. However, there was one error with the brush that had a fixed tint on strokes that slightly changed the stroke colour even when the colours were the same, so I adjusted the tint a little lighter to match with the stroke.
Fig 4.7 Fixing Stroke Colour Error (Before & After), Week 5 (21/10/2024)
Fig 4.8 Final Colour Choice, Week 5 (21/10/2024)
Pattern Designs
Fig 4.9 Pattern Design Drafts, Week 5 (21/10/2024)
Fig 4.9.2 Tire Mark Pattern References, Week 5 (21/10/2024)
For pattern designs, I extracted the music box lever from the logo and tried to create a pattern that mimics the tire mark pattern by linking back the idea of music store on a truck. I thought this was a fun idea to enhance the visual identity of Music Box's brand. Below are my final pattern designs using the lever element:
Fig 4.10 Final Pattern Designs, Week 5 (21/10/2024)
Logo GIF Animation
Fig 4.11 Final Pattern Designs, Week 5 (21/10/2024)
For GIF Animation, I separated the elements that were used in logo construction and saved them as separate png files. Then I imported these files onto Adobe AfterEffects to animate the elements one by one in different layers.
Fig 4.12 Animating on Adobe AfterEffects, Week 5 (21/10/2024)
Week 6 / Final Submission
Below are final PDF and GIF files for Task 2A & 2B submission:
Fig 5.1 Task 2A Logo Analysis, Week 6 (30/10/2024)
*Fixed font error from PPT-PDF exportation
Fig 5.2 Task 2B Final Submission, Week 6 (30/10/2024)
Fig 5.3 Task 2B Logo Animation (GIF), Week 6 (30/10/2024)
FEEDBACK
TO WEEKLY FEEDBACK LIST: CLICK HERE
Post Submission Feedback
2A: Able to identify the types of logo analysed. Analysis is accurate and concise fulfilling the requirements of the brief. Room for more critical analysis (opinion, success, etc. ) of chosen logo but otherwise, demonstrates some critical thinking ability overall. Do credit your sources.
2B: Progression process is extensive and well documented providing a comprehensive and cohesive support to final logo design. The colour version of logo design reflects a better division of positive and negative components as opposed to the black and white version (side of box as positive element, legs as outline, etc.). Missing the colour version for wordmark logo. Be careful when indicating logo clearspace for second version of logo not to flip ‘b’ as it will read as ‘d’). Logo with strapline does not adhere to logo clearspace (perhaps this version only needs a single line component clearspace as opposed to a stacked double component). Same with the second logo with strapline. Consider not utilising full justification of paragraph in logo with rationale as unsightly ‘orphan’ and ‘rivers’ are present. Do check that logo minimum sizes are to scale (it looks smaller than the indicated measurements). Logo minimum size for second logo version is to small as ‘highlight’ line details on disc is not visible. For suggested brand colours, do indicate which to be primary and which to be secondary colour choice. Despite suggesting only one typeface, sensitivity to type is demonstrated by its clever usage of typeface family in a creative but consistent manner. Well executed gif.
REFLECTION
Experience
My overall experience in task 2 was enjoyable. Although at the beginning of the task I was unsure of my direction in building and developing brand's identity with mind maps, I slowly got to understand the structure and its importance with the help of lecture information and self reflection on my track. I liked that the boundary of building our brand was unlimited– I was able to imagine and think of an idea that are usually uncommon due to its limitation barriers in real life, but adding two different things together allowed to strengthen my creativity when planning the ideas linking back to the original topic given.
Observation
I enjoyed having group discussions with my classmates as I was able to gain variety of insights and opinions from the peer evaluation and also learn and realize the things that I have simply missed or overlooked on. These feedback that I received every week were helpful in improving and rebuilding my ideas and designs.
Findings
I learned that well constructed logos hold much more consistency and stronger impact upon viewing the logo at a glance as those little details add up together to create a whole complete outcome. In this task, I focused more onto the illustrative mark rather than typographic aspect which I wish I could have improved much further onto. Balance between the logo mark and text typography are crucial and the harmony it builds up strengthen both the visual and brand identity in terms of conveying the essence of brand's identity into one piece of logo.
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