Champneys - Sub Brand Research.

As suggested in the previous crit I have decided to research further into other sub brands that are around. I found it hard to find this happening within the sector we're looking at so I came across brands from other areas. It has been interesting to see how this has been approached and what links have been created to still keep the association with the main aspect. After looking at these examples it became clear to me that sub brands don't have to be an almost exact reflection of the original and can even be almost totally different and still be successful.

"A true sub brand is a name which a company attaches to part of its product range or services and which it believes deserves special promotional support. Sometimes such sub brands are used in isolation from the main brand but it is far more common to link both names - as in Ace Courier Gold. The sub brand is in this way endorsed by the main brand and hopefully some key values are transferred. However, as we shall discuss shortly, whilst the sub brand may be strengthened in this way, the main brand may be weakened; if nothing else, the identity is likely to be less distinct."

b2binternational.com

Asda

Asda is a good example as it covers a variety of price ranges and age demographics. The branding for each sub section varies quite greatly, and the only link between them is that the Asda logo is incorporated, I had expected maybe a similarity in colour usage or type but this hasn't been the case. When looking at the examples in a group like this it is even easier to see the techniques that have been used to attract certain individuals. For example the products for children use more fun typography and also use some character illustrations. In addition the contrast between extra special and smart price is obvious from the script type face and luxurious purple to basic photographic imagery and simple layouts.

Channel 4

Channel 4 was interesting to look at as the logo branding was very individual for each sub channel and really gave an impression of its personality. The visual style of each logo is totally different but they link together by the fact that they all form the number 4 in one way or another. As well as the logo I also looked at the channel indents to see how the branding was applied to additional items and although each style was very individual they were all moving image that had a strong corresponding link with their logo. Finally I investigated how each separate website was branded as this is something we need to consider for our own project. I found that apart from the main channel all of the others had a very similar layout that had the specific style applied to it.

Virgin

Another company I looked at was Virgin and I found that this was the most cohesive out of the selection as there was variety but the main logo was present in all. Another aspect that is repeated in the bold red colour as this is a strong part of the brand identity. The style of the adverts is quite different but as said before the continual use of the main logo links them together and makes it recognisable.

Champneys - Web Experimentation.

As the web aspect will be a big part of this project we have started looking into possible ways we can apply our branding to it. We decided that we wanted to keep a similar aesthetic to the current website as the sub brand needs to be consistent. As a quick way to see how it could look we screen shot the current site and applied our ideas on top.

We started by seeing how our print could be incorporated by including a simple strip of it although we found the logo was now hard to read, which is why we introduced the simple circle shape similar to the lid design to make it clearer to read.

However we found that the circle didn't give the aesthetics we were looking for so we looked at lowering the opacity of the print and applying the type on top and then changing it up with white type. However we found legibility still wasn't great and the strip of pattern was very bulky to look at.

This is when we decided to limit the amount of pattern that we used to give a cleaner aesthetic. From the previous experiment we decided that the lower opacity looked effective and made the content easier to view so we continued with this approach. These examples demonstrate similar strips of the print that we feel works a lot better. Our favourite is the strips down the side as it frames the composition and has a contemporary look.

Champneys - Self Initiated Crit Two.

Today we returned to the crit that we organised last week, we were excited to show what we had done since the last meeting as we felt we had progressed a lot. Less people were here today so it went a lot quicker but we still got some really valid and helpful feedback.


Feedback:

• Marbling has been really successful and it also links strongly with the sub brand name.
• Taking an approach that isn't floral will really help the brand to stand out.
• The strongest web design would be the one with the patterned panels down the side.
• Look at other companies that have sub brands, not necessarily within the industry we are looking at. For example channel 4 with e4 etc.

Personal Branding - Reviewing Previous Branding.

To start the process of updating my personal branding I began by reviewing what I had previously designed last year. I analysed what I did and didn’t like and made a list of things I could do to improve it. I was happy with my logo design but I felt there was better ways I could enhance it. For example I wanted to experiment with different processes such as spot varnish and triplex to give a more professional end result.

Champneys - Marbling Mock Ups.

After editing our marbling samples we thought that it would be beneficial to see how they would look in context, so we quickly mocked up some box nets to view how the patterns would look. Although we liked all of these designs we found that when our top favourites were applied they weren't as successful as first suspected. For example with the blue and orange sample the shapes that we previously liked because they were so detailed ended up looking cramped and bitty, we also felt the colours looked too masculine compared to the others. In addition the pink sample ended up looking heavy because there wasn't any introduction of other colours.

We found then that we really loved the purple and turquoise sample so developed the mock-up to a larger scale and introduced another pattern that was similar but with a different colour scheme. We liked these prints because of the white spaces and the contrast that it gave to the prints and how it broke up the more condensed areas. Even though we like the green example we felt that the colours from the other were slightly more appropriate for our target audience.