My brand

The new Practice of Design project is to develop a brand for ourselves. The process of developing a brand for someone who is not exactly sure what his chosen field of expertise will be has proven to be rather challenging. However, being a student of design, I began at the beginning. That is, I treated the task as though I was developing an identity for a client.

First, I defined the problem: Using my current interests in web design and illustration, I decided to call myself just that, a web designer/illustrator/graphic designer. My plan is to try not to associate myself with any currently existing design firm as I hope to become a freelance designer. With that, I did a little research on the internet as to how other illustrator/web designers have branded themselves. I quickly noticed that many of my future colleagues out there (who shall remain nameless) have logos that I consider to be rather busy, with too much going on, or appearing too 'clip-arty'. Others have logos that appear to have been created by professional designers who have been creating logos for many years. These logos are simple, to the point and elegant. So I decided to try to go that route.

Next, I doodled. My doodling resulted in many pages of really bad attempts to make my name look cool or 'logo-y'. I quickly realized that I could either go the corporate route or more of a typography-based route. My corporate idea was deemed too generic and "inside the box". 

After that I decided to change gears completely and start over with a blank canvas. That's when I came up with my current design, which consists of three lines and resembles a wave (sort of) but is actually an 'R' and a 'C', my initials. I think it's simple and elegant and exactly what I'm going for. My only criticism is that it's not obviously the logo of a graphic designer/illustrator/web designer. It is, however, the best logo consisting of an 'R' and a 'C' that I have personally come across, so I'm sticking with it. 

The coordinating letterhead consists of only the RC/wave logo centered at the top of the page. 

Arts-Street.org: A Design Process Case Study

I was lucky enough to speak with Ivy Hastings of Fusionbox recently regarding her and her company’s effort to re-envision and redesign the website for Arts Street. Arts Street is a Denver non-profit company that provides children with the opportunity to learn studio and technology-focused arts. Arts Street provides education, mentorship, internship and even employment in the areas of web design, photography, video and writing skills to underserved youth. 

The Objective:

According to Ivy, who acted as Fusionbox’s Creative Director on the project and sits on the Board of Directors for Arts Street, Fusionbox recognized the need for a more effective website for Arts Street and offered to redesign the non-profit agency’s website on a pro bono basis. Fusionbox set out to increase awareness of the agency as well as increase recruitment of volunteers, grants and more effectively zero-in on the target audience. 

The Strategy:

Through collaboration with their client and exhaustive research, Fusionbox was able to define a vision of what the final product would look like. The process involved in attaining that vision required more time than the rest of the project and was also considered the most important. Ivy informed me that her team’s first task was to determine what information would be presented on the site. This process involved determining who would be viewing the site and why. For instance, potential volunteers and students viewing the site would most likely want to know what programs would be available and how to go about taking part in them. On the other hand, potential donors would want to know what Arts Street does and that the agency is stable and organized. 

The Process:

Once the discovery process was complete, Ivy and her team of 5 designers went about wire-framing and story-boarding the necessary content. This process was done without any aesthetic consideration other than deciding the most logical, intuitive and user-friendly layout. With these mock-ups, her team responded to feedback from the client to come up with a final blueprint for the design of the site. 

Ivy’s team then combined the blueprint with previous information regarding the client’s web design taste to arrive at a final product. Hardly any back-and-forth with regard to design changes was necessary due to Fusionbox’s thorough understanding of their client’s vision.

The Outcome:

The success of the project is evident in arts-street.org’s increased site traffic and search engine ranking. The continued success of Arts Street as an organization is evident in the fact that Fusionbox employs and interns Arts Street alumni in their own company. 

The process of researching this project has been an enlightening one. Ivy Hastings happily provided me with her time and expertise so that I may understand how her company was able to build, from the ground up, a professional website for a deserving organization. Thanks to Ivy Hastings, Fusionbox and Arts Street.

pro bono update

I have chosen arts-street.org as the subject of my pro bono project. Arts-street.org was created by fusionbox, a local Denver web design firm. I have been in contact with Ivy Hastings who is the Director of Business Development at fusionbox as well as a board member for Arts Street. She and I will soon discuss the process involved in the creation of arts-street.org. 

More later...