Brand Corporate Identity: Task 4

7th June - 30th June 2023 / Week 10 - 13

Alana Sofia Othman / 0353451 / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media

Brand Corporate Identity

Task 4

---

INSTRCTIONS

Task 4: Brand Guidelines

Weekly Progress

Week 11

Attachment 1.1. Brand Guidelines Progress, Week 10 - 11 (7th - 14th June 2023)

This week I was a little slow on my progress due to being a little burnt out and the rush of other assignments. I was also mostly just figuring out the assignment and putting the same information about my brand in again from previous assignments.

Week 12

Figure 1.1. Navigation Bar Planning in Brand Guidelines, Week 11 - 12 (14th - 21st June 2023)

Figure 1.2. Planning of Rationalisation in Brand Guidelines, Week 11 - 12 (14th - 21st June 2023)

Attachment 2.1. Brand Guidelines Progress, Week 11-12 (14th - 21st June 2023)

After consultation, I had a better understanding of what I was supposed to do for the assignment. I was able to then move a little faster with my work, adjusting and adding in content. Most of my time actually went to finding decent images that fit my brand. Oftentimes the images either did not fit my brand, were not very pretty looking or were super pixelated, which becomes a problem especially for the pages that are just full images. As suggested during feedback, I made pages with full images, however, I added in some copy aswell that introduced my brand. This copy was used throughout the Brand Items during the previous assignment, so I figured to apply it here as well. This also ironically made finding the right image a little harder as I was being picky and wanted the context of the image to atleast somehow relate or atleast not be so far off from what my copy was saying.

Once the brand profile was decent enough, I put in my navigation. To be honest, I did not put much thought in it and just placed it in the easiest place possible. I purposely did not have the navigation bar align to my grids because the spacing inbetween the chapters would then be noticably different due to the length of the words. See Figure 1.1., where top image is evenly spaced out while bottom image follows grid columns.

I then moved onto Visual Guidelines, which was mostly straight forward as it was exactly as previous assignments. I worked on my Logo Rationalisation in AI, as seen in Figure 1.2., before putting it into InD as I wanted to fully plan it out first based on feedback given from the last assignment. The only other things that were different were Logo Colour Usages and Logo Don'ts. I came up with these following references of Pinterest Brand Guidelines and other works on Behance such as Md Asraful and Loftist.

Week 13

Attachment 3.1. Brand Guidelines Progress, Week 12 - 13 (21st - 28th June 2023)

Figure 3.1. Interactivity Tests Exports, Week 13, (28th - 29th June 2023)

This week I finsihed up the layouts of everything and adjusted some pages based on feedback. From the feedback, I began to take notice to the layouts of the content on the page and how it clashed with the navigation bar, which was something my brain did not really register beforehand. So, I took the time to readjust some pages, especially those in Visual Guidelines section, to make it work better together in terms of grid alignments.

I put in a little more effort into my navigation bar as well based on feedback and tried to experiment with it. However, I then realised I messed up by not thinking about it earlier as if I were to move the navigation elsewhere, it would mess with my entire layout. So, I stuck with the layout as it was now but tried to give it more personality by adding in the brand design elements. I also figured animating some of the hovers might be interesting (but it turns out it does not work in pdf T.T). I also finally created a version for the dark background. There was also a little problem with my Target Audience page as it felt a little cramped on the left side along with the picture. Although I personally believe it was not a big deal, I figured i would try move it to the right just for a few pages and it did turn out a little better than the original. I also added the page numbers and the prev/next page buttons.

After feedback, I spent the next day still trying out different things and experimenting with my interactive buttons and page numbering systems. I realised I should try make my e-book a little more interactive as it can carry out the whole "fun" personality more but I did not want to over do it either, so I played only with the Brand Profile section. In two days, I had multiple different tests to ensure my buttons worked properly and to see what looked better and what did not, check out my exports in Figure 3.1. It was during this time that I realised animated buttons just dont work in PDF files as it could actually work when I published online instead. However, I never saved my published online versions as I consantly saved by overriding them (cause im a fool) but trust me, I tried with the animations. Eventually I moved on and worked with the       

Final Outcome

Brand Guidelines (Published Online Version)

View it Here

Brand Guidelines (PDF Interactive Version)

---

FEEDBACK

Week 11

- Use more pictures, the first section is where I can be more playful

- I can even have inbetween pages that are just full images cutting inbetween my content of first section (image of people in a club or sorts)

- Explore visually in first section with brand colours too, dont be afraid of empty space

- Brand Personality, not Brand Positioning

- Brand personality is like my "Young and Fun" of Brand Values. Can think of swapping out maybe

- Explore more with layout

- Can add more body copy and be more descriptive and long winded if i wanted to

- Think about clicakble navigation on every page also

Week 12

- Last page will have brand info and ways to contact

- Need to make the subhead bigger and more distinctive, play around with it, detach it from body copy

- Brand Values page is boring and empty

- Navigation is pretty boring and needs a version for dark background

- Content page is "abit... hmm"

- Visual Guidelines background keep mostly white or very light pink

- I can keep rationalisation and patterns with my coloured background as planned

- Keep text left maybe to align with navigation bar, if not it seems abit off

- Don't forget B&W version of logo

- Need text at Every. Single. Page. We need to explain for non designers who may not understand

Week 13

- If navigation animation doesnt work out, just simplify it. Have the shape appear without animation

- If it doesnt disappear as i intend it to, thats a software issue, not me

- Previous content page was better but atleast I tried

- First end page is better

- Don't need to add page no., prev/next button and navi to the pages with full images, it'll be ugly

- Picture credits are on/under each image (Source: Name, Website)

- Mockups don't need picture credits

---

REFLECTION

Experience

I found this assignment to be irksome as it was mostly just things we've been doing since the beginning. We just had to lay it out again and again and again, which is so repetitive and bound to be annoying. It was tiring looking at the same things and doing the same things over and over again and I just felt myself going crazy with this assignment as I was so unstimulated with it by this point. I get the point of the assignment and the importance, it was just super monotonous and tedious.

Observations

I was quite happy with the outcome of my work despite being sick of it. I do realise I could have done better in terms of the whole "e-book" part as I mostly forgot or ignored it till much later, which was then too late. This taught me a lesson that I can't pick and choose certain parts of the brief and tell myself "I'll worry about that part later" because it would just mess everything up. Although knowing that is pretty much common sense, it serves as a reminder as I still made that mistake, especially with my navigation bar of the e-book.

Findings

I learnt that InDesign can make e-books and interactive buttons which was really interesting. I've been using InDesign for many years now and never knew that it was a thing. I love that no matter how long  or how much you use a software, you can still learn new things about it. I do wish that there was more we could do to customise the interactivity of the book within InD but alas, everything has it's limits.