OUGD403: Study Brief 01

Logotype Development
23 / 10 / 15

After I received my feedback from the Crit-Box session I decided I did need to focus more on the type and get rid of the border around the initial logo. I went back to the drawing board and toyed with this idea of CeX being a recyclable company. 
I knew I wanted to still incorporate the arrow in the design so looked where and how I would do it.

I settled on having it present on the 'e' as shown above, as it reflects the recycling logo thus reflecting the company. I strayed away from having more than one arrow as I didn't want to over-complicate the type. 

The choice of a sans serif typeface emphasises the modern turn the company is taking and focusing mainly on the type in front of you allows me to experiment with how I will incorporate the red into the colour scheme whilst being more subtle.

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24 / 10 / 15

Firstly I began by recreating my drawings on illustrator to see how each of them would look and work in relation to the placement of the arrow. The type choice of Avenir Heavy makes it bold enough to stand out to the crowd without affecting the scale of the arrow. 

My next focus was onto the colour scheme and how I would incorporate the red subtly into the design, so the logotype is still recognisable to CeX but simultaneously brings a new style and look to the market. I played with having a bold black or white main colour with the subtle red shadowing behind it, plus a grey background. This looked clean and fresh but quickly developed onto experimentation with using a contrasting border around the black/white type and the red behind it again. I was really keen on how this looked as it makes the type give a stronger first impression...

I set out the two options with the 3 different background colours and went around the studio asking which people thought looked most appealing to the given target audience and whether the introduction of a fourth colour (grey) would work contextually when put on different medias i.e. website, shopfront, stationary, etc.

There was an equal split between the black and white options and nearly everyone suggested to scrap the idea of introducing the grey. By narrowing it down to the contrasting white and black options it gives me the flexibility of using either colour scheme, dependant on the context it will be sat within. Using only black, white and the themed red didn't overcomplicate the design and provides a nice depth to it. The design has a border (which matches the background) around it before reaching the red shadow, this emphasises the presence of the red for me as it never directly touches the main type, but merely acts as a set-back feature shadow. 

And examples of this in action on my stationary mock-ups...