OUGD602 — Branding - 01

As I was progressing through my final year of university, I have been thinking and challenging myself on the topic of my own visual identity. Who am I? Does Pencilwound actually define me? Or does it define an event that happened in my life?

I felt like it was time for a change.

I began by listing topics related to me and my practice.

— Modern.
— Active.
— Determined.
— Motivated.
— Excited.
— Creative.
— Passionate.
— Cyclist.
— Beer-drinker.
— Conceptual.
— Hands-on.
— Optimistic / Positive.
— Aspirational.
— Dedicated.
— Designer.

Once I started to analyse this list, I felt like I knew where I was heading aesthetically. I wanted to keep to a clean type-based approach but I wanted my conceptual drive to shine through it.

I was asking myself the same questions again "What am I?" and I had a lightbulb moment. my first initial is 'A' and therefore I can be 'A — Dyson' but playing on it in variations that show that I am a creative (A — Creative), for example.

I started trying to think of variations using the list above:

A — Modernist.
A — Creative.
A — Cyclist.
A — Beer Drinker.
A — Thinker.
A — Maker.
A — Do-er.
A — Designer.

This was definitely a direction I wanted to explore and so I began working out the visual representation to see if it would work aesthetically. The reason I wanted to go into this so quickly is because if the identity was well thought out but couldn't look good, I would seem a lousy designer for those that were looking for a potential freelancer/junior.

I tested a few of my favourite typefaces out until I came to DIN.

DIN is a personal favourite of mine for it's characteristic letter-forms and functional design as a whole. It was designed to be used in engraving on metal but has been shown to work well in most mediums. I have never used it in a project before because nothing had fit with it, however my the most attractive form in the typeface (to me) is the A and in this I would be using it as a consistent anchor.

I started to experiment with the formation of how things would look with DIN Bold and fell in love with the results.

I could already see it become a very fun animation at this point so I decided to give it a go.

It was this point I knew that I had made the right decision to begin the process of advancing my personal branding.