Our End of Year show comes to an End!

This week has been a great journey of growth and personal development for me. We had a good number of Nottingham creative agencies come by on the Wednesday & Friday evening, and it was great to see them expressing interest in our End of year projects. I was chuffed to bits that I achieved Distinction level for this FMP rebranding project.

My Final major project went through quite a metamorphosis over three weeks with the ongoing support and input of my family and brother. I completed a branding project which I am proud of. Ila my client, unfortunately did not manage to attend; however, she was visibly impressed with the work I produced for her and wished me well in my future endeavors and career - and congratulated me via social media. Eventually I had that eureka moment, and began to understand what direction I was heading down - a more stream lined and minimal design. Distilling the design was the key.

The photos of the display below show my stand/stall, with the gracious help of Victoria Ashton (in our FdA group of 8) who constructed all of the plinths to display our printed assets. She is a real team player and helped us all out on the set-up day.

Printed branding stationery :- including flyers, business cards, menus and of course the brand-guidelines for Ila.

All the branding stationery from Ila's logo, her vinyl, chalkboard display to the guidelines were placed in context within mock-ups. These visuals were then printed out on mount-board, and highlighted our displays effectively in the gallery space. We were very pleased with the space at Broadway.

What I'm most proud of in this project was producing a high-quality logo, and a set of brand-guidelines ready to be potentially utilized. The additional research into current contemporary branding proved to be very valuable. I understand that branding is essentially about reduction and capturing the ethos of the company. Once I synthesized and absorbed this, it was full-steam ahead. 

Thank you very much for reading, and I'll keep you updated with what happens next in my creative ventures and career.

Me, Kirsten, Victoria, Imaani and Exza (part of TopFloorDesigns) at our preview night at Broadway Gallery last week.

Here is me, my mother and my brother Sam!

Ila's Tea Room - Branding guidelines

Hello! It's been a few tumultuous weeks of preparation and organizing for our End of Year show this coming June. Currently I have been working into finalizing the brand-guidelines for my final major project. The show will be happening from the 20th to the 23rd of June at Broadway cinema, leaving us the 17th and 18th to set up our display areas accordingly.

For Ila's Tea Room condensing her core brand values and beliefs into a cohesive guideline was important in establishing consistency. In this booklet crucial information regarding Ila's brand is presented, from the details regarding the selected typography/type to the colour swatches in the final logo design. Branding stationery from the A6 flyers, business cards, menu, small scale art prints for principle use. All the nitty gritty elements that go into managing a brand, such as her audience. She expressed keen interest in diversifying her target audience, to attract Nottingham's younger professionals and students for example. As the majority of Nottingham's hospitality/cafe' scene is predominantly comprised of the established corporate chains, understanding Ila's independent competitors was important – such as White Rabbit/Thea Caffe'.

Colours and use page from the brand-guidelines. Outlining the RGB colours/pan-tone colours for printing and digital use.

After previous visitations to Ila and her tea room, I further understood what kind of regular customers came to visit her. Her current brand 'Ila's Little Tea Shoppe', comments such as the shop's location were a regular concern. Customers would give feedback on specific logistical concerns about how to locate the tea-room, this was an important question and would be resolved by producing a vector map outlining its whereabouts. With a designed map as part of the menu, customers will be able to locate the tea-room with ease.

Example page from the Inspiration I collated in the beginnings of this project, from Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Willow Tearooms to the Yumchaa tea brand.

Ila's Tea Room - Final Project Update

Hello there! Since I handed in my final project from the 10th of May, I have been following upon the guidance of my tutors at Nottingham College and have embedded a more contemporary version which I produced over the weekend. Following advice from my brother and tutors (Richard/Sarah), I have implemented changes to further improve and make the design more suitable for mass audiences. What I have submitted below are the re-worked versions of the newer improved logo design, with carefully selecting colour palettes seen in Ila's tea shop I have went about - capturing the teapot and tea leaves with a suitable colour.

The amended design, after initial studies of Yumchaa's logos and more contemporary brands I pushed for a simplistic design - with a hand-drawn typeface and vector doiley effect, in keeping with some of the previous ideas in my file.

I have implemented a few situ images that tie the contemporary branding for Ila's here, they are an alternative branding concept to make it more accessible to a larger demographic. Understanding that the majority of her current audience base, consistent of more maturer ages having a clear and appealing brand image. Understanding the research that goes into a brand is one of the more critical aspects – who is your audience/market? What they want and how can your service/or product solve their problems and emotional needs. In this case for Ila's tea shop it was about creating a warm pleasant experience that will attract consumers from a myriad of ages, not just a maturer demographic – this was to be communicated through the branding elements I suggested in my proposal, such as the menu/flyers/business cards/brand guide-lines and the vinyl print.

Reflecting back to this Final major project, expanding upon more contemporary examples would have been much more beneficial earlier on. Having explored this then at a later, has definitely improved my design and confidence overall – and the execution of specific ideas. The additional situ designs showcase the additional contemporary brand assets, they are significantly different to the original submitted designs on the 10th.

Templates - available from Graphic-burger. Putting the logo & Ila's slogan (personal) onto the chalkboard for effect. See the current chalk-board below to see the difference in execution.

Applied with chalk-paint, how the display looks on Trinity walk.

For the business cards, I followed the theme of having less repetitive elements and included Ila's name (first) to be placed on the front. And the back to include social media pages and contact information.

The front of Ila's contemporary (version) businness card.

Here are the tote-bag ideas I had in mind just to see how the applied branding could appear on bags and accessories. Looking at templates on Graphic-burger (great resource).

Currently I'm in the process of double-checking all the elements to be verified and sent to the printers, I have been receiving additional support via the ACES team at the Nottingham College, and they have been instrumental in helping me manage my schedule and progress.