Archive for Case Study
September 1, 2011 at 11:05 pm · Filed under Case Study, Design Industry, India, Logo & Corporate Identity, Projects, Redhu
The brand naming engagement, which resulted in “Sigante” is detailed here.
Following is how the logo evolved. [ Having named the brand, the business element of real-estate had to be included in the visual identity, without making it seem like a run-of-the-mill real estate company ].
Below : The first sketch in this logo development process led to the final shape as well. Rare, but usually the first option can be literally path-breaking for developing the identity, even when it does not translate to the final logo. [ click on image for larger view ]
I was doodling when a conversation on Twitter, with Sumantra Ray aka @upjaaudimaag [ which literally translates to "a fertile brain" ] gave me a visual reference of the Burj Al Arab towers in Dubai, where, it is claimed that is you stand at the top, you can see so far away into the distance that the curvature of the earth is visible. I conveyed the same meaning to the client via the following graphic. [ click on image for larger view ]
Following are various options for typography, color combinations and shades, logo and brand name placement and final shape suggestions.
The decision to include the letter “S” was made because of higher identification probability in a cluttered marketplace. While there is no direct reference on “buildings” or “construction”, the shapes lend themselves to the idea.
The logo was presented in two placement formats, which the client will modify depending on display media.
An example of the business card, which is only a graphic representation, not the final design :
Having an exceptional client is as important to an identity design & development projects as it is to have an exceptional designer. Without Sahil’s professionalism and constant co-operation with the brief and the meetings and the innumerable emails, this projects would not have been accomplished as smoothly. Thanks Sahil and here’s to a hearing great things about Sigante! Cheers!
Popularity: 2% [?]
June 15, 2011 at 1:13 am · Filed under Artwork, Case Study, Design Industry, Logo & Corporate Identity, Personal, Print, Projects, Redhu
I completely forgot to show off my business cards! This is taking-off from the personal calling cards post I had done earlier.
The letterpress company is @themandatepress with their website at http://www.themandatepress.com/.
I think I chose their cheapest option – believe me – letterpress goodies are expensive – with a gold edge, which, in retrospect, to my cheap-Indian brain – could have been better spent – it shows nicely in the images below – after I’ve told you – but when I hand out a card to someone, it’s not evident at all. Also, the embossing / the letterpress wasn’t as “impressive” / deeply embossed as I had imagined – which is probably my bad – I had all these ideas built up in my head about how the cards would look. I was thinking that the main “n” on the card would really stand out – be depressed deep into the card.
This was my first brush with letterpress and while I was a little disappointed with the result, and I will not be giving it another spin anytime soon, I definitely want to do it again.
I also got a call from someone today who wanted me to design their logo. They got in touch with me after one of their colleagues showed them this business card of mine. So I guess, it probably did have some effect after all. Disclaimer : I am not very big on the giving out of business cards and only ever hand them out when someone specifically asks me for one. After all, once you’ve met me, you don’t forget me, hence making the card redundant. I am also very easy to get in touch with, as my mobile number and email id are on the web for all to see / use.
Popularity: 2% [?]
June 11, 2011 at 3:29 pm · Filed under Case Study, Design Industry, Logo & Corporate Identity, Projects
This brand naming engagement was for a real-estate client. The business was identified as “The brand’s business is to provide world class consolidated real estate services under one umbrella to the customers. The mission is to be the world’s leading company in real estate services of investment advisory, brokerage service, Engineering (building) consulting and then foray into marketing of products in green housing, medical equipment, and technology from abroad. Also Villa development.”
The company will operate in India and will expand further to South East Asia. The name needed to be conceptual and with an international feel because the target audience would be individuals as well as corporate companies. During the engagement, we also learned that names with two words are impossible to register / trademark in India. I had never created two-worded brand names earlier, but I was not aware of this technicality either.
The inspiration of the brand name came from the Greek “Colossus”. The client identified with the mythology personally and wanted to represent the same in the brand name to some extent.
I started with a mindmap and there were close to 300 permutations and combinations in it.
The words used were related to land, earth, scale, size, large, wealth, build, etc.
The second step was to check for availability of domain names and condense the permutations and combinations to a list of five names that represent the brand’s tone and voice best.
Since all other names presented to the client are unique, I am not able to share them on the blog. But the final name that was chosen, “Sigante”, came from the suggestion of “Xigante”. My notes to client were, “Literally “giant”. I can see that spelling might be an issue but it can also be used as a unique identifier. The only “competition” I can see is from a European consulting firm that calls itself Zigante.” Due to the spelling, we chose to go with “Sigante”. The moment the brand name is finalized, I book the domain on my own and transfer it to the client.
We were also discussing the logo design engagement and further branding story notes were : “A “giant wealth creator”, we could use that to build a logo with a character in it – like a mythological god and keep the identifying keywords specific to strength, posture, foundation, etc. Or we could tie it in with elements related to the earth / land, etc.”
The logo is currently being finalized and tied-in with the brand name, it works beautifully for the brand and it’s prospective target audience.
The biggest challenge in a brand naming engagement, in my opinion, is coming up with a relevant brand name that also has a .com domain available without a squatter on it. Since this is becoming more and more difficult, the art of naming a brand is also becoming tougher with an increased investment in hours spent on the engagement.
Also keep in mind that if you have to check the availability of a particular domain, the best way to do so is to do it from within your dashboard with whichever hosting company you use. I have never had trouble with Dreamhost but I have heard that if you search for the availability of the particular domain using GoDaddy, and if the domain is available, if you don’t book it immediately, there is a high probability that the domain will no longer be available.
Popularity: 3% [?]
April 30, 2011 at 2:26 pm · Filed under Article, Case Study, Design Industry, India, Logo & Corporate Identity, Projects
I’ve always maintained that working with friends in a professional capacity is the best. The client can be persuaded and recommendations can be give with more freedom and swear words and the designer still gets paid what they’re worth. Oh, and the engagement yields great results as well.
What started with a re-design requirements for Media Redefined, which is a social media agency, soon turned into developing the brand for a new product they are launching. The change happened early on in the project and it happened over strategy discussions on where the company was headed. All meetings had all three partners, another friend who is a fantastic creative himself [ although Saurabh's more the writer kind ] and myself.
BRAND NAMING
The name that was finally chosen is DOKITO.
The name is derived from the Greek “dokimasia”, which literally translates to mean “test” in English. But we weren’t after the literal meaning and the derivatives and synonyms bring it back to our main keyword “analytics” and “to assay”. The other keywords were “social, measurement, media, tool, report,” etc.
There was also the consideration to keep in mind that the name should be snappy and new and young and should related to something on the web, without making it a typical Web 2.0 name.
The rest of the components of the word apart from the “doki”, are the Latin “ito”, which literally translates to “go wherever”, which we interpret as “travel / discovery” etc. which can also help in the name / brand story and helps connect with the logo that the app takes the client on a “journey” of discovery from confusion to clarity by delivering analytics reports. Without knowing the roots of the words, “dokito” also sounds like a “docket” or something to do with “documents / reports”, which is one of the things the apps does – delivers reports of social media analytics.
The Mindmap that was made for this brand naming engagement was the largest ever – I believe it shows how more and more difficult it is becoming to acquire domain names. Did a lot of searching!
I also checked for language variations and any negative connotations for all combinations in “dokito” and everything seems to be pointing to the positive. Doki. Ito. To. Dokit. Do. All good.
LOGO DESIGN
Since we had initially started with discussing the logo design for Media Redefined, the initial sketches were relevant to the letters M and R.
After these, we moved to Dokito and we had one idea, which fit in to almost all the criteria we had – visual, placement, layout, representation of meaning and we all loved it – atleast by the end of the process! It was the following image below, which had been brought up while working on the MR logo.
In these iterations we were trying various placements and typography and maybe better integration of the visual with the type.
I’d also like to mention that even before the client had given the go ahead on the name dokito as the final name, I had already booked the domain. The small $10 charge is nothing compared to when you recommend this wonderful name for a brand and the client loves and the client shares it with someone and then the domain is not available anymore…
I will also mention that the logo in these iterations, the logo visual is not optimized yet. That happened in Illustrator later on.
The last image above appealed the most to all involved stakeholders.
Further refinement to the logo and the design of a landing page, till the team launches the Beta – to allow visitors to sign on to receive notifications. They also needed a quick mockup of a business card to use immediately. [ We completely missed out on including the website url and email! It really was a quick requirement. ]
And don’t forget to signup to find out more about Dokito if you’re interested in social media – I can hardly wait for my beta invite – even as an independent designer / photographer or “visual identity specialist”, I am eager to finally find something I can put to use for my online presence. Thanks @praval and @gmishra and @honeytech ans @simple_sy
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