This post represents the body of work completed for Print Studio I this quarter. The assignments revolved around a singular identity project, implemented through an initial brandmark design, subsequent brand guidelines brochure, and a media kit designed for direct mail application. I was assigned a land trust environmental agency, Chattahoochee Hill Country Conservancy, on which to base my class projects.

As a proviso to my discussion of this project and course, it is helpful to understand that identity and logo design is not my specialty. As many from my undergraduate career can attest, logo design is neither a talent or desire of mine in the scope of graphic design. I very much enjoy creating logotypes–I love tweaking letterforms and attributes to create a beautiful product–but I do not approach brandmark or logo projects with the same level of skill or enthusiasm. I understand the importance of identity design in the graphic design industry, but due to the increased segmentation of the design market, identities are generally created by specialized agencies. I choose to specialize in other areas of graphic design. I actually interned at an branding agency in Greenville (fuel) during my undergraduate degree, and, after learning more about their approach to branding, and the general feel of that portion of the industry, I found that there are many areas of graphic design I am much more effective in. Unfortunately, I was not able to opt out of this course due to my aversion to identity design. I am reasonably happy with the result, especially after spending many hours executing three disctinct approaches to this logo from my research and thumbnails (to attempt to satisfy the professor.) Unfortunately, the professor was never too thrilled with any of my solutions, so I eventually gave up my quest for the “approved” logo, and moved on to the production of my brand guidelines, mostly out of necessity.

Through the production of my brand guidelines brochure, I made a vast visual departure from my early design concepts, and settled on a textural treatment that more accurately depicted the natural foundation of CHCC. Fortunately, the professor was happier with this piece, although he still maintained a distinct dislike for the logo included on each page. Lots of work went into this piece, and it ended up at almost thirty pages, including brand identity, brand application, environmental graphics, and merchandising.

The final project was stuffed into the final two weeks of the quarter, and included the creative production of a direct mail media kit. Creative execution and consistent brand identity were important in this concluding piece. I chose a format about the size of a DVD case, with a CD and fold out trifold brochure inside. The trifold also tears away from the CD, and folds out into a branded poster for increased brand identification. The graphic treatment followed the design of the brand guidelines, partially for brand consistency, partially out of time necessity (the two pieces came due together, even though 3X as much time had been spent on the eBrochure.) I’m pretty happy with the final design, and the textural treatment represents a pretty clear departure from my trademark clean and sophisticated style. The entire project reinforces my general dislike for the branding market, but also resulted in further exploration of textural design and description of brand components.

Additional Downloads

Market Research Paper
Market Research Paper
Logo Design Narrative
Chattahoochee eBrochure