While I liked the logo designs I had previously created, I didn't think they were strong enough to be used as an identity for the exhibition. The logo design I like best is the NBA one in the typeface I designed, however as my project is not to rebrand the NBA, this is not something I can use. The logo I am supposed to be designing is for the exhibition, not the NBA, so I took the idea from this design and applied it to the exhibition logo.
For this, I wanted the '10' to be the main focus of the design. I think the problem with the previous logo is that it there was too much type and not much of a focus, so it didn't really look so much like a logo as such.
I created for colour variations of a very simple '10' logo.
While I wanted to keep the logo clearly linked to basketball, I didn't want to have a basketball in the logo as I think that there are plenty of other ways to represent the subject other than the obvious way in including the basketball.
I decided on just using the shape of a basketball instead. I experimented with a few ideas before coming up with the following design:
This design is much lighter and isn't as blocky as the previous logo design. The typeface also looks much better in a thinner weight.
At this point I developed it further. While I initially thought the lines around the text was a good idea, I do think that it will look better and more professional without.
I tried a few variations of the design and decided that without the outline line it looked a bit lost and wouldn't sit very well on media, so I have included this line, but I have got rid of the line on the inside of the text.
Logo design:
I am much happier with this logo. I think it looks a lot more professional and clean cut than the previous attempts. I think that this is down to the fact that a logo doesn't necessarily have to be bold and colourful to work well. This logo definitely works well with more space in it and lighter text.
I then created different colour variations so I could see how well it worked. I did an inverted design which could be placed over images and not to made hard to see, like it would be with the original design. It also starts to help me think about the branding guidelines, which is going to be a big part of this project.
Logo variations:
I made a list of everything that was appropriate to my outcomes to include in the guidelines:
General
About
Sponsorship
Colour
Paper Sizes
Grid System
Logo
Logo
Variations
Sponsorship logo
Logo Sizes
Do
Don’t
Placements
Typography
Headings
Body Copy
Indexing
Layout
Images
Colour
Don’t
The first thing I thought about was paper sizes. As these guidelines are part of the brief, I need to keep them within the guidelines themselves in the way they are presented, so this is an important element of the brief.
I thought about the various media that I could potentially need to brand for the exhibition and the standard sizes for these.
- Letterhead - A4
- Flyers - A5
- Larger Media - larger than A4
- Publications
Something that I was definite on is that I wanted the media to all be in even centimetres. I do want this to be throughout all the media aside from those that need to be in A4 or A5. I decided that publications should be smaller than A4. I decided on two different sizes for publications. I am only planning on doing two publications for this brief so I needed to think about the sizes of these.
At this point I also started creating the imagery and text for the brand guidelines as well.
Page sizes
The paper used must follow the specifications given here. Keeping to these specifications ensures that the branding of the exhibition stays strong.The first rule is that all printed media must be at a portrait orientation when presented/folded. This keeps a consistent visual throughout the branding.
The second rule is that, aside from the specified sizes, all media larger must be an even number of centimetres on both height and width. For example, a sheet a 24cmx28cm is acceptable, but a sheet at 23cmx29cm is not.
There are five main sizes to go by, each with their own specific use.
The first is the letterhead at A4 size. This is to be used for the corporate side of the business only, for writing letters.
For publications there are two sizes available to use. One larger, and one smaller.
A5 is suitable for promotional flyers and invitations to the exhibition.
The smallest media is for small printed editorial media at the exhibitions. It represents the page size of one sheet in a concertina, booklet or flip book (whichever is appropriate to the content).
No media must be smaller than the smallest page size specified.
Larger media can be at any size as long as it keeps to the specifications written.
Grid System
The grid system is important to the visual look of the branding. The restrictions must be followed in order to keep a consistent appearance across a variety of media.All media must go by the same grid system of 10 columns by 12 rows. The guttering can be changed depending on the size of the media being used.
On smaller media where this grid system may be too large, the system of 5 columns by 6 rows may be used.
There must be at least a 1cm margin around every page. Written content must not go over this.
Bleed must be at least 3mm. This can change depending on the size and nature of the media.
Logo
The exhibition has one logo, but two different appearances. The logo is based on the shape of a basketball, displaying this in its simplest form. The two difference appearances are to make maximum impact on the products, but also give a wide variety of options in their use and placement on a page.
The official logo is the top one. This is the one that should be used on all corporate documents, such as letterheads. The logo variations can be used throughout branding.
Sponsorship Logo
The sponsorship logos must be present on all branded items, from corporate letterheads right through to exhibition published material. There are two variations of the logos to be used. The colour logos should be used at all times if the finished product will be printed in colour.
Both logos have white boarders around them. This is to ensure they are clearly seen over whatever they may be put on top of.
The greyscale logos are only to be used when printing in black and white.
These logos must not be edited in any way. They must be presented as they are and follow the restrictions set.
Logo Sizes
Each logo has their own specific minimum size which must be followed at all times.The exhibition logo must not be any smaller than 30mm in height. The logo can be any maximum height as long as it follows all guidelines.
The minimum exclusion zone around the exhibition logo is 1cm. This must not be any smaller. This can be larger.
The sponsorship logos must not be any smaller than 20mm in height. These two logos must always be the same height as one another.
At the smallest size of 20mm, the exclusion zone for the sponsorship logos must be more than 5mm.
Text Layout
Text layout must remain consistent across all media, which is the reason for restrictions to follow.In media A4 or smaller, the body copy must be broken down to two columns. The only exception of this is in the use of the smallest media allowed. If needed, the text can be shown in one column if at a large enough point size.
Headings should always appear at the top of a document.
For letterheads the text must be in one column.
Any media larger than A4 the number of columns must adapt to the size. These columns must not be too wide.
Text columns must go by the grid of the document.
There must be at least a 1cm gap between the column and the edge/inside of the page.
Each group of columns must have a 1cm gap between each column for consistency.
Text must attempt to be even in at least two columns on a page. There must not be one long column only unless the page also holds images.
Logo Do's
Do place the logo colours over the opposite block colours. Either logo variation is fine to use.When using coloured images, use the opposite colour logo over the top.
Do place a coloured logo over a monotone image. If this is the non-block logo it must remain in the image frame.
The block logo is used for if the logo goes off the edge of an image.
Logo Dont's
Don’t place the logo over the same coloured background.Don’t skew the logo in any way.
Don’t add anything to the logo.
Don’t enclose the logo in a space.
Don’t put any effects on the logo.
Don’t change the colour outside the colours specified.
Don’t rotate the logo in any way.
Don’t lay the logo over an image of the same colour.
Don’t place the non-block logo half way over images.
Don’t colour in the background of the logo.
Don’t change the colour of individual elements in the logo.
Don’t use an image in the background of the logo.
Don’t flip the logo.
Don’t warp the logo.
Don’t use the black or white logo in full colour printing.
Don’t make the logo larger than the image.
Image Do's
Full colour images should only be used on photographic inset pages in publications.Opacity must be at 100% at all times.
Greyscale images should only be used on section beginning pages in publications.
Opacity of greyscale images must be at 75% at all times.
There are two colours which can be used in the duotone setting. These are specified colours given in accordance to the branding of the exhibition.
These are the only duotone colours that should be used throughout media. These colours should not be altered in any way from the specified brand colours.
These can be used across all media, but on the same page the duotone colour must be the same throughout.
The opacity must be at 100% at all times.
Image Dont's
Don’t skew the image in any way.Don’t lay two images over each other.
Don’t use an image in a shaped frame.
Don’t edit the images in any way.
Don’t change the saturation in any way.
Don’t change the colour of the images to ones outside the specified colours.
Don’t cut any of the image out.
Don’t use two different colours at once over the top of the image.
Final Brand Guidelines
After completing these brand guidelines I started working on my exhibition publication. Before starting the publication itself, I had a couple of ideas about the information that I wanted to display in this publication.
As it is a publication on the exhibition, this means that I must have a clear idea about what exactly would be in the exhibition.
I started by researching the top NBA players and deciding on which players needed to be included.
Players Chosen:
- Bill Russell
- Kobe Bryant
- Tim Duncan
- LeBron James
- Michael Jordan
- Larry Bird
- Magic Johnson
- Oscar Robertson
- Wilt Chamberlain
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Something that I wanted to visually show for each player is the teams that they played for. I found an image of the USA with the states highlighted which currently have teams in the NBA.
I like the idea of this and using this as a base for visually showing the teams for the players.
I took this image and took it into illustrator.
I thought for each individual player I could reference their state teams by colouring that state in red, and the other states in blue or white, depending on the colour of the media below it.
I had quite a clear idea for the layout of the publication and the types of design I wanted on each page.
For each player I wanted to have a double page spread as a introductory page, containing a large image of the player, their name and the teams they played for.
I drew out a few quick initial layout ideas to get a bit of an idea of what I wanted.
I did a couple of different ideas for the first front page, using the image colour development that I decided in the brand guidelines.
I tried both the blue overlay and the red, and decided that the red was quite hard to look at and the blue text doesn't work so well over the top, whereas it seemed much better visually with the blue overlay and red text.
I had originally wanted to do five in blue and five in red, however I now do think that I should use the blue for all the players and make this the main colour throughout the publication.
Player introductory page layout:
I then worked on the rest of the publication.
I wanted the front page to fit in with the idea that I did for the branding guidelines, as this keeps everything very uniform and very branded.
I did it in the blue as a contrast to the red of the brand guidelines publication, and it fits in well with the blue that will be used throughout.
I then started looking for images for each of the ten players which are appropriate to the content of the exhibition.
Image research link
Player introductory pages:
I am happy with my progress up to this point. I think that my development of the brand guidelines has been very thorough and very helpful to me as I start to create the publication. While I have given myself a lot of guidelines and restrictions, I do feel that there is definitely enough room for me to develop the designs and create something visually strong and representative of the subject matter.
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