Overview of the material and concepts learned this month.
Connecting/Synthesizing/Transforming
This month’s course was somewhat stressful, but very informative. In this course, I gained a lot of knowledge in the different types of media to communicate the brand, which is BoxPark Sushi. During the four weeks of the course, I conducted (and revisited some research from earlier courses) secondary research to generate a plan to correctly execute media assets based on what i have learned from previous courses.
I revisited some research from earlier courses about logo design. David Airey’s Logo Design Love (2015) provided information about creating the right logo, with his Elements of Iconic Design. While creating my logo for BoxPark Sushi, i applied Airey’s Elements of Iconic Design to determine which logo will be the official logo for my brand.
Logo 13 was selected, but it needed more work. Although it is very distinct and memorable, the logo is a danger because the overall logo led to being more “Pacific Island” than the “Caribbean”. The question i asked myself was “How am i going to turn this Pacific Island looking logo to a Caribbean logo!?” Utilizing the critiques my professor and my peers gave me, final logo below.
Since the typeface for sushi was too bulky, I decided to create movement by adding rough waves and played around with the words to make the waves irregular. With the palm fronds It was too “graphically perfect” at first so I decided to make the palm fronds a slightly weathered look, making the palm fronds look like they are rustling in the wind. Added two coconuts as well, because coconuts are very popular in the Caribbean. With the font for “BoxPark” I decided to go with a written typeface called Javacom, which compliments the Tiki Island typeface and gives it this authentic/handcrafted feel. Lastly, I added beach colors to the logo to give the Caribbean vibe I was looking for.
Problem Solving
A problem that i needed to solve was figuring out how to effectively create a brand book that communicates my brand of BoxPark Sushi. A brand guide offers rules for how color, typography, logo and the message are represented to the target audience. Not only that, the guide create consistency for your brand. It’s like you are telling the world what to expect for your branding.
Onliness Statement:
BoxPark Sushi is the only traditional sushi restaurant that will serve innovative and quality Caribbean style sushi at an affordable price for marginalized communities in East Side Milwaukee who needs better representation in their food choices.
The only way for me to perfectly execute it to make sure everything is consistent and it aligns with the brand nicely by creating the following content: brand story, target audience outline, brand personality, logo, typography, color palette, imagery and media assets.
Innovative Thinking
What was very innovative is the design of my logo for BoxPark Sushi. For one, it is not cliche in the industry compared to other Japanese sushi restaurants. I say this because if you look at other Japanese restaurants, you see they have somewhat the same fonts, same color, PNG images of chopsticks, fish, and circular brush strokes. Although most companies avoid cliches, some companies use cliches on their logos because they are quicker to communicate to a target audience. I also used colors of the beach to represent my approach for my brand, and not your average black and red colors.
Acquiring Competencies
Brand Characteristics. Words that describe how the brand wants to be perceived. (occupational, conceptual)
Post-Mortem. Post-Mortem is a debriefing of a creative project (occupational, conceptual)
Visual Hierarchy. Arranging elements to show their order of importance (academic, conceptual, occupational)
Brand Values. The core values that your company believes in. (occupational, conceptual)
Typography in Branding. If you want to have a visually appealing typography, you must have a solid understanding of basic design principles. The more you practice, the better you will become in making good design choices and an eye for typography. (occupational, conceptual)
Brand Guide. A brand guide is a book that explains how your brand presents itself to the world by what you have done up to this point (logo, color, typography, etc.). This will help you maintain consistency in what a brand look, feel and or sounds like. (academic, conceptual, occupational)
Layout Design. Placement, rearranging, and formatting of elements. (technical, occupational, academic)
Media Asset. Or advertising mediums, are the “where” of the ad. (technical, occupational, academic)
Be proactive. Make it happen instead of waiting for them to happen to you. (occupational, conceptual)
Jerry Medireck's Mastery Journey 