Archive for the ‘branding’ Category
WBR World Beach Rugby Summer 08 T-shirt Design and Development
Beach Rugby is the game of tag rugby played on the beach. The WBR World Beach Rugby clothing brand was created by Lovell Rugby (The UK’s leading Online Rugby Store) in order to fill the quiet gap in trade between the end of season and pre-season training. Back in 2006, we designed the logo and the initial collection which went to retail in May 2007. Now, almost 18 months on and after having sold over 10,000 garments, the clothing range has been expanded to meet with the demand for the rugby fashion wear. In this post we show how we went about creating the Summer 08 range and the promotion to accompany the collection.
The Summer 08 collection of World Beach Rugby clothing is in fact the third range for the brand. The first, Summer 07, consisted of 6 simply designed t-shirts all with a sporty / surfy style. The second range, Winter 07/08 again consisted of 6 tee’s as well as a couple of Winter garments. Both of these ranges were create to test the market and see what, if anything, would sell. After two successful ranges, Lovell Rugby decided that Summer 2008 was the time to expand to a more extensive range featuring hoodies, caps, flip flops, trousers, board shorts as well as tee’s, polo shirts and rugby shirts.
The project began almost a year ago in August 2007, where we met with the guys at Lovell Rugby as well as the clothing manufacturer who briefed us with the list of garments required. We were also presented with figures of what designs had sold previously and after some discussion about where we all saw the brand going we set to work. It seemed that the garments that had previously sold well were those that had designs in unconventional places, ie spreading over the back and sides of garments. We set ourselves a project timeline outlining when initial designs would be showcased, sampling stages and finally promotional deadlines.
We began by breaking down the clothing and sketched where the designs would be on the each item, what type of material would be used and what colour dye we wanted. We started loosely sketching designs to go onto the garments discussing type of prints stitching and embroidery. In doing this we began to build a synergy within the collection. From there we split the collection between the two of us to work on the designs in more detail. This process took a couple of months, usually we find it quite difficult to put a project down in mid flow, however with such a long enduring project it was relieving to work on other projects as we went allowing us to return to the project with fresh and excited eyes.
As well as the garments themselves we also had to develop other ideas for ‘perceived value’ in the form of trims, neck labels, side patches, washing instructions and swing tickets. The patch used in the neck and over the side seams was to be the same design printed on a rough canvas material with a washed out and distressed look. In discussing ideas for the swing ticker which would be attached to the neckline it was clear that we did not want to produce something that would most likely be thrown away. To solve this, we created a dual purpose swing ticket which could be peeled of as a sticker and hopefully be used by the end user to further promote the brand.
In October 2007 we pitched the initial range to Lovell Rugby offering each garment in several colour options. On the whole the designs we received well with only a few being dropped. We then chose a selection of colours to be sampled by the manufacturer. The artwork had to be prepared and guidelines were written for each garment. These included the type of material to be used, garment and design colouring, stitching, print type, embroidery, where the design was to sit on the garment.
By November 2007 we had received initial samples of the collection and overall we were very pleased. Next followed some fine tuning on the range. Some garments were dropped and final colours chosen. There was also an issue with the sizing of the designs which had either come out too large or too small. Laying the samples out we were able to see a fluidity and synergy throughout the collection.
In December 2008 we received final pre-production samples which looked great and were much more in line with our original ideas. We were now ready to start work on the promotion for the range. This would include a range of promotional material, with a completion date set for April 2008:
- New World Beach Rugby website
- Promotional Brochure / Catalogue
- Magazine advert
- Emailer newsletter designs
- Promotional Website banners
As the Christmas period was upon us we started the promotion production in January 2008, where our first port of call was with an excellent local photographer, Mike Evans (www.mike-evans.co.uk) who took some stunning photographs of the range which we would later use for the brochure and product banners, he also photographed every product for use on the website, magazine advert and emailers.
We decided to keep the promotional material clean and simple ensuring that Mike’s excellent photography had full focus. The brochure was the first piece to be created as this had printing lead times. Once that was under our belt we moved onto the website, followed by magazine advert and product banners.
In total, It took 8 months to wrap up the whole project and was extremely exhausting and relieving for it to come to an end. However, it all seemed worth it when in July I was giving a talk at a local college and low and behold one of the students was wearing one of our t-shirts. All of a sudden gushes of pride washed over me as I realised that thousands of people were wearing our designs, I know it sounds crazy but I hadn’t really thought of that until I saw someone actually wearing one.
Although it was a long and hard project, we were really pleased with the final outcome and feel immensely proud to have people out there wearing our designs. What made the project so much fun was having complete control over every aspect of the brand from designing the prints to choosing the material and then completing the promotional work. It really was a very enjoyable experience.
For more information on WBR World Beach Rugby or to view the full collection of t-shirt and clothing designs, visit the new website at www.worldbeachrugby.co.uk
We have just completed designs for the Winter 08/09 World Beach Rugby range and are currently awaiting samples. Once we have some photography we will post some of the designs on the blog.
So what do you think of the Summer 08 WBR World Beach Rugby collection? Something you would wear? I’m interested to know if you have you ever had a huge project where you’ve wondered if there is light at the end of the tunnel (or even outside your office!)? Or any other thoughts or experiences on T-Shirt / Clothing design?
Tags: branding, T-shirt / Clothing design
Posted in Portfolio, T-shirt / Clothing design, branding | 4 Comments »
Design development for Wakeham Asbestos
Back in February we were approached by Wakeham, a new company in the asbestos industry who offers training and consultancy. The company required a full set of branding as well as brochure and website.
As with every design project, we start at the beginning - the logo. They felt that their industry was particularly male dominated and wanted a logo which was strong and bold yet quite simple. After an initial discussion we concluded that the logo could center around these themes:
- Utilise the “W” of the company name
- Focus on the “A” in the company name highlighting Asbestos
- Use the three strands of the business (training, management and surveying)
- Focus on some imagery or representation of asbestos
Other than requiring a strong, bold logo, Wakeham didn’t have any other specific requirements in mind. The logo was to be used online as well as brochures, stationary, invoices etc, therefore it had to work on all types of media.
Stage 1 - Sketching
We started by utilising the “W” of the company name combining it with shapes representative of the three strands of the business (training, management and surveying). A lot of time was spent sketching “W” type shapes. We wanted the logo to look contemporary as our research had shown that competitor logos were very dated, we therefore needed something different, something fresh and alive. However, we were also aware that the logo had to appeal to a B2B market as well as B2C so therefore had to look somewhat corporate.
Once again we combined the three strands of the business concept when focussing on the “A” in the company name. As Wakeham are a consultancy we liked the idea that they can handle all aspects of your project and so developed several umbrella type designs.
It’s easy to get carried away when you are designing and creating a logo and once we looked over the logo’s we decided to present the following concepts:
The client immediately liked one of the logos. They did have a few minor adjustments to the tracking of the text and the corporate blue colour so we experimented with both these aspects.
From the logo the stationary was then developed. This was quite a seamless leap and the logo transfered well to the letterheads, compliment slips and business cards.
We then started work on the brochure, Wakeham supplied all textual content as well as a rough layout. They wanted the brochure to be simple and easy to read and as there was a lot of textual content we decided to break the layout into sections. We ensured the contact information was repeated on the brochure so people could find it without too much trouble.
Wakeham had few minor text adjustments with the brochure, but overall they were happy with the design and the corporate branding that was emerging.
Using the style of the brochure we created a simple, clean website. Again the contact information is repeated on every page, allowing users to get in contact easily.
This was a great project as the client had some initial guidelines and ideas and knew a lot about their market and who they were trying to target. However, they also gave us enough free rein to explore other possibilities and ideas.
So what does everyone think? Did Wakeham Asbestos choose the right branding? We would love to hear your thoughts.
Tags: branding, brochure design, Graphic Design, identity, Logo Design, Web Design
Posted in Graphic Design, Logo Design, Portfolio, Web Design, branding | 11 Comments »
How easy is it for a graphic designer to brand themselves?
I don’t know about you, but it took us what seemed like decades to decide upon our name, logo and branding. We went through rigorous brain storming and research trying to iron out what we liked, what our market would like and what would stand out against the crowd.
Our main problem was that we wanted something that was a little crazy and ‘off the wall’ that would make us stand out from the crowd. We thought that having no client restraints would be great as we could do all the crazy design things we had always wanted to. However, we knew that this wouldn’t quite work with our potential clients due to our location as quirky branding may put off our target market (which consisted of mainly small to medium sized local businesses). Once we thought this through we had a much better idea of our market place (our potential clients and competitors) and how we could slot into that, so we started at the beginning (as it’s a very good place to start) with our name.
Step 1 - Our Name
We had several ideas for our name, but the first one that really stood out for us was (drum roll please…) Remote Media. We liked the idea that we were living in a remote part of England (sort of…) and also offered quite a range of services (video and dvd creation) so we felt media left it quite open to our expertise. Our style has always been really simple and we knew our logo had to reflect this. We created a simple type based logo with a simple colour scheme. To be honest, I don’t know where the grey and lime colour combination came from but I think it was something we had both probably thought of previously.
Step 2 - Our Website
The next stage was to build a site using our new name and develop our branding. We had several branding ideas and we felt the strongest of which was that we stood out against the crowd (well, we thought we did anyway!) so we adjusted photos to illustrate this. However, after hours of creating one green pebble in a group of grey ones, or one green phone box in a group of red ones, we felt that this was too cliched and overused so decided against it. We also liked the idea of using photo’s merged with vector art but felt it didn’t reflect what we wanted to say about ourselves. By now we were getting a few jobs and realised that very few of them were related to video or dvd, and the fact we were finding it so difficult to decide on branding made us nervous about our name. So we decided that before we went too far down this route we would stop and start right from the very beginning.
Original Remote Media Business Card Design - Side 1
Original Remote Media Business Card Design - Side 2
Step 3 - Our Name… again
So we began brainstorming again and the same names cropped up, however this time a new one came into play… eightyone design… and we both loved it! Why eightyone design? Well, that was the year we were both born. We were sure we were onto a winner with this one and after several sketches we came up with a logo and applied our beloved lime green and grey colouring. Using the lines we created for the logo we started to develop simple branding. Our business cards came from the logo, and our website came from our business cards. The whole process seemed to be a lot more seamless than the first time round (Well, with a slight detour to a more distressed style - see the initial ideas for the website below). Company stationary and letterheads flowed easily and before we knew it eightyone had a style we were pleased with. Don’t get me wrong there are times we look at other peoples sites and branding and think “why didn’t I think of that?”. We also sometimes cringe at our company name as once people know that eightyone represents 1981 and that was the year we were both born it usually sparks looks of concern for our age and experience. This then leads to people talking about what they were doing in 1981 - very cringy indeed, but a good talking point.
First draft of the eightyone design logo
initial ideas for the eightyone design website
Conclusion
So to my question ‘How easy is it for a graphic designer to brand themselves?’ the answer from our point of view is no, it is not very easy! I am sure that in a couple of years we will have to review our branding and style to ensure that it is forever evolving and fresh. However, I do feel so much more prepared for it. I am prepared for us to critique it from every angle and spend a ridiculous amount of time on ideas you know are wrong. I could quite confidently say to a client that we put 110% effort into making their branding right for them and their market place. However creating our own branding seemed so personal and there is the possibility that we thought about it too much and tried to go against what we felt was right.
Final eightyone design business card - Front
Final eightyone design business card - Back
What about you? We would love to know how other people went about branding themselves and what they think of ours?
Tags: branding, Logo Design
Posted in Graphic Design, Logo Design, branding | 12 Comments »