Corporate Design for a makeup brand

Comment on the work process

Early on in the idea-finding process I decided that I wanted the name of the brand to relate to the kind of products the company would produce. As the name would have to be a word most people, independent of their mother tongue, should be able to read and pronounce without any grand difficulties, I decided on the Spanish word for beauty: belleza. Since a double-L is pronounced quite differently in Spanish than for example in English, I had the idea to implement that into the design and play with those two letters a bit. After a few versions with different approaches for the “ll” (e.g to suggest a two-piece frame1), the three final designs emerged.

In the steps following the development of the final designs – which I wanted to vary in appearance (in handwritten font lettering; with a distinct logo image; simple but with characteristic forms that stand out) – I chose design 3 for inclusion in the further steps. It is the only design that does not come with a drawn draft because it developed out of a mixture of the hand drawn ideas via reduction and simplification done digitally. The letters are inspired by the font “Riesling” but the logo was not created using that font. The double-L stands out and is repeated horizontally, creating a distinct pattern/combination of forms.

Then I decided on a slogan that represents the leitmotiv of the brand and what it stands for as well as a colour that buyers can clearly associate with that specific company and its products. I decided on a dark and muted shade of purple that is not often used in the cosmetic sector. The colour purple has been shown by studies to be associated with emotions like relaxation, calmness, power but also mystery as well as royalty and is perceived as romantic, nostalgic, nobly and classic. I kept the hue and saturation levels equal but used different lightness-values for the logo itself. Where the company needed to stand out among possible competitors (e.g. business cards, on car), I also used the desaturated dark purple on larger areas. Another reason for the use of that dark-purple colour in background areas is that I imagined the brand to be a newcomer on the market so the association between brand and colour would have to be established first.

Logo Design for an architectural firm

As the most formal version of the three, this logo variant lies its focus on conveying a sense of tradition, esteem and confidence (perhaps based on experience?). To achieve this, the font “Perpetua Titling MT” was chosen as it gives a professional impression and includes serifs as well as rather balanced strokes (e.g. the thickness of the two “legs” of the A differs not as extreme as is the case for other fonts). The composition of the image aspect of the logo (monogram AD) corresponds to a triangle that, in its orientation, can be seen as representing stability and reliability. Also, the letters are combined in a way that visually depicts how the architecture and design departments could be complementing each other in the company maxim. The design does not include an obvious emotional aspect but focuses on the functional and rational design the company is known for. This impression is sought to be intensified by the colour choice – a dark blue, the coolest colour of the spectrum.

Less formal, the image aspect of this logo design has a playful side to it thanks to the forms used to depict the monogram “AD”. It is dynamic yet functional and reliable – represented by the letter A that carries the weight of the elaborately curved sweep of the letter D. This refreshing and playful combination of forms therefore possibly appears especially appealing to private clients looking for creative and unorthodox designs and inspiration. Yet, the chosen font contradicts and reigns in that playful character, upholding a professional appearance of the brand. Neither modern nor traditional, this logo design represents a rather artistic approach and focuses on the design division of AD Architecture & Design. The colour palette on the other hand makes reference to the fact that the company also offers garden architecture solutions.

Bold, strikingly minimalist, and timeless, this version includes representations of the letters A and D by combining two parallelograms and one semicircle, whereby the second parallelogram fulfils three functions: being the second leg of the letter A, forming the backbone of the letter D, and lastly separating architecture from design via a backlash (inversed slash). This shared functionality visually portrays the collaboration between the architecture and design divisions of the company. Furthermore, the style of this logo could allude possible clients to the architectural and design solutions they can expect from this company. Aside from this, the solid and plain forms reproducing AD as well as the chosen font (sans serif) convey a sense of stability and strength, representing reliable, functional and rational designs the company is known for and that make it attractive for private as well as industrial clients. The somewhat block-like colour gradient thereby reflects the step-by-step process from construction to interior design.

Layout & Editorial Design for a surfing magazine

The photographic cover version features a picture showing the inside view of a gigantic breaking wave with palm trees in the background. It was a deliberate choice to go with a picture devoid of any signs of a human. While it is admittedly quite usual to choose a photograph depicting a person holding a surfboard or even capturing them while surfing, the cover at hand is meant to defy that standard and thereby stand out, all the while pursuing a more generic approach with the selection of the picture. The idea behind this choice was that this way people of the target group (surfers) can imagine themselves riding that wave – as opposed to another surfer already having snatched up that particular one. This allows and perhaps even provokes people to dream, but instead of having to imagine themselves being the person in the picture, they are presented with the view they could have as the surfer riding that wave, being the first one and only one in that awesome tunnel wave. To support that mental process and reinforce the dreamlike impression, the colours are quite muted, which in combination with the rather plain design elements and their composition gives the cover a fully intended classic flair. Furthermore, the reference to Hawai’i was not excessively pointed out by design elements but rather the quality of the wave was given – by keeping everything else plain – enough space to speak for itself in that regard. (Image by wirestock on Freepik)

Opposed to the approach of the photographic version, one look at the graphic cover should let the viewer know the destination. All but one design element are simplified in an extreme measure, but in their simplification they include the most prevalent and telltale aspects of Hawaii: a flower necklace, which due to numerous Hollywood movies tourists expect to be handed out at the latest when arriving at the hotel, a coconut to sip from, palm trees, amazing beaches and of course, in reference to the magazine’s thematic focus, a surfboard. In combination with the glaring colour palette, the textual choice to reference surfing slang and the composition of the text, e.g. the sun as a text field, this cover practically (or at least is intended to) screams “FUN!” at the viewer. Lastly, as mentioned before, there is one element that rather stands out from a design perspective – it’s included, in accordance with the fun flair of the cover, more as fun fact that will give some people pause and others not, which is absolutely fine. Inspired by David Hockney’s painting “The Splash”, the cover is composed of simplicity and solid colours in everything but the splash or in this case the break of the wave.

The focus of this cover lies on the Hawaiian culture since travelling/visiting a foreign country usually goes hand in hand with getting to know the people who live there, their culture and the history of the land. Admittedly, including Hawaiian words related to surfing and their translations is a rather intellectual approach to designing a cover but this version gives a taste of what visiting Hawai’i might be like from a cultural point of view and it is intended to pique interest. It especially targets viewers (surfers) who want to stay true to a country’s customs, its nature and want to learn something all the while doing what they came for, namely surf. All design choices of this cover version were therefore influenced by the Hawaiian culture: the colours in which the Hawaiian words are written represent the colours of the Kanaka Maoli Flag (native Hawaiian), the surfboard like shape in the center consists of traditional patterns and symbols found in Hawaiian tattoos (which are a language in itself), and the woman holding the barcode-surfboard in the upper left corner holds out her hand in “Shaka” – the Hawaiian gesture used to greet people.

Screen Design

Since the name of the company makes reference to Greek mythology, specifically the godess of Spring Persephone, selected colours are soft, pastel and warm. In general the design is modest/sober as to not induce an intrusive impression and to balance the very colourful as well as replete photos. Colour blocks separate contentually differing elements.

The logo is a monogram consisting of the letters P and G. The upper round parts can be interpreted as the blossom of a flower while the backbone of the P can be seen as the stem of a plant/flower with roots at the base.

Below the header with its consistent elements, I added a slider-banner consisting of three different images that would change automatically after 3 second each. The images (clickable) are accompanied by a catching title and a short description which would redirect customers to the corresponding html-pages. Arrows as well as a bar (three squares below the images) help to orientate and make manual back or forth between the three topics possible.

The navigation bar starts with the most relevant symbols - search, basket, and log-in - followed by the most relevant categories. By hovering above those with the mouse a drop-down menu will show, containing the subcategories (see page 3 for example).

Since the focus of this company lies on selling garden-products I designed a shop-site for the category “flowers”. Options for further filters and “sort by” are included at the top of the page. At the bottom, hyperlink-text like “Next page” is underlined.

In general clickable elements are either framed in a box or underlined. Selected elements (see page 6, product site for gardening tools) are highlighted in a way that the box is lighter than that of other un-selected elements. This is implemented consistently across all pages.

The website would be optimized for mobile devices so that the text-image-ratio as well as positions (from overlapping to below each other) will be adjusted (see page 7 for example).

Written Argumentation

I went into the assignment with a general idea (or feels) regarding which colour I associate with the four topics – for some those feels were more concrete than for others. Along the process of cutting out the colour-squares, the association between topic and colours became more specific. Hence, I had a variety of coloured squares to begin with and reduced them until the final colour palette resulted.

As a general characteristic of the appearance, I wanted the analogue aspect of the task to remain present in the final product (otherwise simply selecting digital photos and cropping them would have given the same results): the base was the cut-out squares which were then scanned, so there is a step which involved digitalizing an already existing, printed coloured square. With this in mind, by looking at the colour palettes one will notice that specifically those for Melancholy and Health have quite a bit of noise in each colour-square whereas Love and Sportiness have a smoother and more even look. This is due to the original paper used for the varying topics. Since magazines use different papers, I wanted to carry on and maintain this peculiarity of the analogue origin within the digital and final version.