Liverpool. Manchester. Leeds. Hull
Target audience:
- Both UK and abroad, meaning it must be easily understandable in multiple languages.
- It could be most useful to focus on an information graphic or pictogram style?
- Identity must be reasonably corporate in order to match previous associations in people's minds.
- As the brief is so broad, it would be too complex to create an elaborate or intricate design.
- The design must work across a broad range of scales - from environmental spaces and places to train staff uniform and digital formats such as an app.
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Following on from our first group meeting, Issy and I came up with different ideas for a logo and icon for Capital North. We wanted to keep these as simple as possible in order to communicate a clear concept in a professional manner.
Following on from our previous group discussions about logo ideas, we focused our ideas more towards the use of negative space. We began thinking about the different ways we could capitalise on the concept of thinking upwards and encouraging people to associate this logo with the North.
We soon came up with the simple concept of incorporating an arrow shape into the capitalised N of 'Capital North'. The 'N' was inverted to appear as negative space, allowing more focus on the arrow itself. Our initial experiment with this idea consisted of 'CAPITAL NORTH' written in Helvetica Bold in black and white.
Although we were both pleased with this outcome, we agreed that the N may not have been so noticeable had we not been aware it was there in the first place. We thought it may be helpful to showcase the final logo with two lines appearing either side of the indented N then disappearing again. This could be applied to all digital formats of the logo to also represent movement of the HS3 train line.
We experimented with different outlined variations of the capital N to compare the clarity and readability of the word 'North', but we agreed the design looked more professional and clean without any additional lines.
Feedback_
At this point around lunch time, DBA came to hear our ideas and see what we had come up with so far. We both explained through the work we had done and the ideas we had.
The group feedback was mixed but helpful.
- the logo out of context could look like a lot of things, eg urban street wear, financial company, train company
- how did we come to the logo?
- what do we want the logo to say?
- whats the big idea behind the designs?
- whats the concept?
- focus on the ideas and the story rather than details in the design.
Shortly after the group feedback we had our individual feedback with John. This was especially helpful.
- logo looks finished it could be used tomorrrow
Another experiment was to place the word CAPITAL above NORTH as an alternative use of spacing. This was unsuccessful as it resulted in the arrow pointing towards the C of Capital, drawing attention to the Capital as opposed to the North.
In order to start thinking about our logo in context, we began thinking about how the arrow incorporated into the N could be used as an app icon for smart phones. We put together a rough series of app pages. We thought that the posters and leaflets of information concerning Capital North could use QR codes or include references to the 'What's On' app to raise awareness and encourage more people to interact with the Capital North app. Example topics on the app would include art, entertainment, food and music.
In terms of colour, we thought it could work effectively to experiment with different opacities of one colour to represent each city as opposed to four individual colours. This would add an emphasis to the four cities working together as one Capital North. We experimented with this on our What's On App using maroon as an example.
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| Sample Colours & Opacities |
What's On App - experimenting with our logo and colour scheme in context.
Initial poster ideas using the same maroon colour scheme.
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At this point around lunch time, DBA came to hear our ideas and see what we had come up with so far. We both explained through the work we had done and the ideas we had.
The group feedback was mixed but helpful.
- the logo out of context could look like a lot of things, eg urban street wear, financial company, train company
- how did we come to the logo?
- what do we want the logo to say?
- whats the big idea behind the designs?
- whats the concept?
- focus on the ideas and the story rather than details in the design.
Shortly after the group feedback we had our individual feedback with John. This was especially helpful.
- logo looks finished it could be used tomorrrow
- think about the context and the meaning
- experiment with colour
- experiment with pattern
- try different weights with the N, what could make it clearer?
- hierarchy of information within the logo
- is the icon the largest part?
- patterns within the logo / patterns outside of the logo
- how could this be applied to uniform or train livery?
- how could the icon hold information?
- use negative space to create posters with images of the cities coming through the negative space
- typed info always starting with a N so it could always start with the icon?
- what are you trying to promote?
- what does the north have to offer?
- Cheap and quality living etc
- build the icon into your messages
- focus on THE BIG IDEA
We felt that this feedback was constructive and had left us with a few key things to consider:
1. What is you big idea? - This is crucial in helping others to understand what it is you are trying to communicate.
2. How can you push the icon further? How can this mark be used to represent and reinforce your 'big idea'
3. Experiment with the icon. How does it look if the font/ weight/ ratio is altered - better or worse?
We felt that this feedback was constructive and had left us with a few key things to consider:
1. What is you big idea? - This is crucial in helping others to understand what it is you are trying to communicate.
2. How can you push the icon further? How can this mark be used to represent and reinforce your 'big idea'
3. Experiment with the icon. How does it look if the font/ weight/ ratio is altered - better or worse?
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