Olivia Joanne Personal Branding

I was contacted by a photography student who needed some branding completing in order to display at her end of year show and to send out to different photographers and agencies. Upon discussing what the client needed it was established that the designer needed to create a logo, business cards and postcard pack.

The client (Olivia) is focusing on architectural photography with a specific focus on brutalism which needed to be conveyed within the business cards. Furthermore Olivia wanted a clean cut, simple aesthetic to her branding providing some visuals of exiting branding that she liked. In addition the designer asked for examples of Olivia’s photography to see if this could inform the branding in order to make her branding more accurately represent her work.

Initial I chose to look at visual inspiration provided by Olivia, establishing different typefaces that she liked and thought would work well within her branding (see figure 1). This process of going through different typefaces with Olivia allowed me to identify key typefaces that I could experiment with in order to create more refine and appealing initial ideas. Once these typefaces had been established I started by creating a word mark logo (See figures 2-9) that could be easily adapted to different mediums and would work for both screen and print. Simplifying Olivia’s name to her initials allowed for a simple and refine logo to be created with different spacing being experimented with (see figures 6-9). When the experiments where present to the client she liked the logo (see figure 9) but also liked the idea of creating a surface pattern that could be used throughout the branding too, as this was something I had mentioned in our initial meeting. From this I looked at the photos that could be include within the postcard pack in order to identify patterns or lines within the photos that could be manipulated and used (see figures 10-14 ). This lead to different patterns being created with the design seen in figure 14 being the most successful. Furthermore the designer took colour inspiration (see figures 15-16) from the photos themselves which are featured within the branding, with Olivia preferring the grey as it reflected her focus on brutalism more appropriately.

In relation to the postcard pack, we chose to create individual cards featuring photo on one side and her contact details on the other, as a concertina book couldn’t be created due to time limitations surrounding printing as we couldn't get a printing slot in time. However Olivia preferred the use of individual cards as they where more interchangeable, allowing more variety to be printed meaning she could personalise each pack based on who would be receiving it. The collection of postcards could then be concealed within an opaque envelope allowing the photos to show through which would be sealed with a sticker featuring her logo (see figures 17-19). Overall all elements of the branding work well together and allow a cohesive aesthetic/brand to be created (see figures 17-21).  

Upon reflection of this brief I feel both Olivia and I worked well together, as she took my design considerations into account whilst communicating her want and needs clearly. This allowed for a good working relationship as communication was clear from the start. Furthermore the exploration of different avenues within the branding allowed for multiple options to be presented to the client. This meant few final alterations had to be made as I had developed both ideas effectively, to a standard where they could both be seen in a professional environment.  

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