Self Branding - Logo

Year 2

Initial ideas

I didn't like being known as 'hjr designs' as there was nothing catchy or interesting about it. The name studio rice is more interesting and will be a bit more unique than just my initials and by having studio rather than designs it allows me to grow as a designer in whichever direction I choose to.

Typeface choice

I did not like the appearance of the previous typeface choice of Acumin as an on screen typeface as it did not show my design style very effectively. Another sans serif typeface that I often use is Montserrat and with the much larger family of weights and styles decided that this would work better for my personal branding. 

About Montserrat 

The old posters and signs in the traditional Montserrat neighborhood of Buenos Aires inspired Julieta Ulanovsky to design this typeface and rescue the beauty of urban typography that emerged in the first half of the twentieth century. As urban development changes that place, it will never return to its original form and loses forever the designs that are so special and unique. The letters that inspired this project have work, dedication, care, color, contrast, light and life, day and night! These are the types that make the city look so beautiful. The Montserrat Project began with the idea to rescue what is in Montserrat and set it free under a libre license, the SIL Open Font License.

This is the normal family, and it has two sister families so far, Alternates and Subrayada. Many of the letterforms are special in the Alternates family, while 'Subrayada' means 'Underlined' in Spanish and celebrates a special style of underline that is integrated into the letterforms found in the Montserratneighborhood.

- urban typography is something I focus on when I travel, photographing all of the type that I come across

- colour and contrast are a big part of my design work

Development

The development process explores the ways in which both the work and personality as a Graphic Designer can be visually represented. All design outcomes show a modern approach through the use of predominately sans serif typefaces and bold colour palettes. This first development takes one of the most commonly used typefaces, Avenir Bold Italic in the colour orange showing the recognisable ‘orange’ hair.  The italic typeface is known to show forward thinking and as the colour is bold the use of lowercase removes any sense of intimidation. When shown in context on something such as a website, this logo stands out and the eye is instantly drawn to it.

In order to develop the logo a more personal element was needed to ensure it was not seen to be generic, but memorable. Utilising the research, completed as part of the initial ideas the rice field imagery became an interesting element to relevantly add some imagery to further enhance the personal branding as a whole. The development looked at placing the outline of the rice field ridge underlining the word ‘rice’ instead of the bold line, but then lead to the outline being placed within the letter ‘e’ as a subtle hint which worked better. When tested in context it was not very clear at small scale and appeared as though the letter had a glitch, rather than a purposeful design element.

The typeface Montserrat was used as it better represented the visual style as a designer, with a bolder and modern outcome; as well as the rice field outlines now forming the brand visuals rather than being a part of the logo itself. In the bounds of a banner shape the outlines were placed to form a patterned background that the logo will be placed over. The contrast between the two words was experimented with, working out the best combination to have the focus on rice but also ensuring that it reads naturally as ‘studio rice’. Having both of the words the same size was bold and a little overpowering so by creating a sense of hierarchy and placing both of the words on the same baseline it allowed for a more sophisticated outcome with a little bit more of an emphasis on the word ‘RICE’.  

Final