ORDINARY STARS
Brand development guide for a film production company that makes extraordinary movies about ordinary people
OVERVIEW
This project is the culmination of the Graphic Design Specialisation from California Institute of the Arts, on coursera. The project consisted on creating a brand development guide for a fictional company and designing a visual identity for it. The design process involved the logotype creation and accompanying graphic palette to visually represent the company.
MY ROLE
Researcher and visual designer.
Tools: Keynote and GIMP
Timeline: Mar 2018 - Apr 2018
DESIGN PROCESS
Ideation
References
Research
Typography and
Logotype
Colour
Palette
Brand Application
IDEATION
This stage consisted on selecting a company sector, elaborating the history of the startup, defining philosophy and brainstorming company names. After brainstorming different types of start-up sectors, 'Film industry' was the final decision.
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The history of the company foundation was inspired by true events; how Juan, a young man -movies fan- participated as a background actor on a Sergio Leone's film, back in 1968, and how his daughter Eva, many years later, would decide to make a biographical movie about him to put in value his life experiences and make him feel as one of the actors he admired so much. The movie was a success and Eva would create 'ordinary stars' to keep making extraordinary movies about ordinary people.
Brainstorming Context
Philosophy
Honest
Authentic
Moving
Name
Ordinary Stars
No more extra
Life tour
REFERENCES RESEARCH
For the visual research of reference material, two mood-boards were created with historical and contemporary reference images related to the film industry in different times.
Historical references
Contemporary references
TYPOGRAPHY AND LOGOTYPE
During this phase the focus was on studying different typographic styles to find the one that better conveyed the company's idea and philosophy. Experimenting with shapes and customising letters was also an important part to personalise the brand logo. The two types selected reflected the elegance of the film industry blended with a more human and real character.
COLOR PALETTE
In this module the palette of the brand identity was extended by creating a suite of elements for the start-up company: colour palette, visual mark, secondary typefaces, imagery/forms and a 'secret ingredient'.
The colour palette was born from one of the historical posters references. Several colour variations were also considered.
Mark
The mark was integrated in the initial logotype, occupying the space of the 'o' in the word 'ordinary' and resembling a camera lens.
Colour Mark and Secondary Typefaces
'Roboto' and 'Roboto Slab' were added to the initial typefaces 'Didot' and 'Sign Painter'. Overall the effect achieved with these typefaces is a clean, human and elegant look, that can be used both on print and on the web with professional results.
Modular system
The brand 'secret ingredient' was a series of icons integrated inside the mark which used the brand colour palette to define the movie content and to visually inform of the main movie topic.
BRAND APPLICATION
The identity of the company was showcased in different pieces of design such as street advertising, website and app screen mockups, t-shirts and print.
