# From Logo Design to Brand Identity System (Case Study)

Channel: Flux Academy
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdQ229IfIn4
Duration: 11 min
Language: English
Words: 1945
Transcript page: https://viewrankai.com/tools/youtube-transcript/LdQ229IfIn4

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[0:00] if you're designing something for a client who doesn't have a robust visual identity it can be frustrating perhaps you're designing a website but all you've been given to work with is a logo or maybe you're designing the logo but this time you want to build out a more complete brand identity design system i'm going to share one of my recent client projects to show you a few approaches that you can take let's go [Music] hello friends my name is matt brunton i'm a designer from the north of england and i once heard michael beirut who's one of the most celebrated logo identity designers on the planet

[0:34] the pentagram partner say this you should be able to cover up the logo and still know who the design is for and that's what an identity system does it means that through other visual elements we can still recognize the brand and i love building systems like that not just designing logos but building robust identity design systems that are almost like algorithms and once you've designed the system all the applications all the other work kind of pops out on the other end of the machine and i'm going to take you through a recent project of mine to show you maybe some approaches you can take that will help build out a system beyond

[1:13] just designing a great logo so this client is called six connections and six connections uses retail products to encourage purposeful conversations on mental health now when the client came to me they just had this concept of six degrees of separation the idea that everyone in the world is connected through six relationships potentially and so they wanted to change not the negative word separation but the positive connections and these guys work one step before professional services to help people with their mental health just promoting conversations promoting mates chatting and then they can pass on to relevant help when it's needed so the symbol really kind of popped out

[1:57] i explored lots of different directions but this uh graphical representation of the idea of six connections which we have here around this central circle which can represent a person and and the connections around that and we were careful to get the geometry right there so it worked well in small and large sizes and it was proportional then develop a combination mark so there's two skews of that and then a colour scheme and with the colour scheme we wanted to evoke the feeling the the right psychology that we wanted so these guys didn't want to be another mental health charity now mental health tends to be very calming

[2:39] quite recessive which i understand we've got a lot of stressed out anxious people we we want to let them know that this is a supportive service that's important but because these guys are one step before they're in the conversation in friends in the pub or the cafe or spending time with people over um food and things like that which you'll see in some of their products they wanted to be a bit louder and a bit more optimistic and a bit more positive and talk about positive elements of mental health as well and celebrate connections so we decided on yellow a traditional color of optimism blue which is a complementary colour the

[3:17] opposite side of the colour wheel because uh complementary schemes are quite high contrast and again uh give a more a little bit of a louder feel um they're not too laid back and then we had orange as well so it's almost like a spit split complementary with the orange and the yellow the other side of the blue it's kind of an orangey red and again that's quite loud passionate you wouldn't normally associate that with mental health but we wanted to bring in a bit of that passion and life and celebration and relationship so now we've got a symbol a color scheme a word mark how can we take it further there's lots

[3:52] of things we could add but for a lot of quote-unquote brands you know identity designs people just have a logo in a certain color and that's it so what can you do so one thing we did was the symbol tessellation to express the mission so the idea was uh six meaningful conversations happen and those six liters each of those six more each of those six more etc and i think it's after six iterations it's like over 46 000 people so the idea is it's like a movement so the tessellation idea expresses that and you can see that in some of these applications here and we took that through onto the

[4:33] packaging for one of their retail products with biscuits so the idea was you sit down they also did some coffee you sit down you have a cup of tea or coffee and share a biscuit with somebody and have a chat that's the concept so we subtly reference that by we have the symbol here in white and but then the symbol is in this tessellation pattern repeats so it expresses this idea that the movement can go on and on and on and this sort of infinite idea and we've just used here the same typeface which i think is neuras grotesque display i think um for the title of this product so it's

[5:12] very simple modernist which gives it a more a premium feel these aren't the cheapest products and that is one way we've expanded the system so we've used the yellow and then just black and white and we've we've taken the symbol and used patternation which also expresses something about their movement which is is good that we've got the two aspects of that too but also you can do things because patterns look nice so we have that on some of the merch and the packaging and then we've taken the symbol further on these beer cans beer and mental health who knew right these guys are being different i love

[5:53] that so the idea is that you share a beer or two not too many because that might not be good for your mental health and here what we've done is exploded the logo so beer is a bit louder and a bit more fun than biscuits or coffee so we have exploded the symbol it's all these different sizes some of the clients customers have read all kind of meanings into why the circles are different shapes and sat different shapes different sizes but it's just because it looks good it was just geometrically and what was pleasing so that's something you can do we've exploded the symbol there and then we've gone a little bit further

[6:33] with also using these shapes as graphical devices so in the three main brand colors these shapes can appear as little devices through different compositions we can also use these shapes so the circle and the rectangle with these particular proportions as masks to mask out photography and create different compositions so there's lots of options already developing just from the symbol and the color palette and we're just using uh one font at the moment one typeface in one way now none of these things you may notice so far that i've shown you these applications actually say the word six connections anywhere but they still look like part of the family and that's what

[7:20] a good identity design system does another thing that i contributed was copywriting i also work as a brand strategist as well as an identity designer and so to really express the personality of the band brand which was uh more fun and more um a little bit more down-to-earth we created all these different taglines and words like powered by mates and the joy of six kind of had some fun with it and the one on the beer cans a real conversation starter and this was kind of a a double meaning that this was a it was a notable conversation starter to have a chat over a beer but also it started real

[8:03] conversations honest not fake conversations between friends that went beyond the surface level and stuff checks in on people and how they were so checking on your mates so that was how we extended that and i found with these headlines as you'll see from the type setting that we needed another typeface to carry them rather than just using this modernist grotesque that was quite it's clean and maybe a bit clinical you could say and we needed something else to carry it that was more of a display face so i chose this face which is called hwt arts which is about as wacky as i get i'm pretty traditional when it comes to

[8:48] type but this is designed by eric speakerman very well known type designer based in germany and that's just a little tip that if you're picking display typefaces it's best to go with a well-known foundry something that you know is very legit because display typefaces are traditionally where people just make all kinds of wacky weird stuff and sometimes it doesn't have great fundamentals and it can look a bit cheap and not professional so if you're going to go with something a little bit out of the ordinary try and go to a reputable type foundry to get it because then you'll know there's a good chance it's pretty solid

[9:28] if you're not sure what you're looking at you're a little bit more junior in your type setting so this kind of rounded out the system by having a different headline face that we could use and you can see this in the examples here in advertising in social graphics and that kind of thing now the important thing finally with identity design systems is you have to test and refine so it isn't that you proceed linearly through the project you know designing from the brand brief to a logo and then all the other elements and then the applications on the end what happens is you get going and the best thing is to

[10:05] try out some applications and try and break it try and see where the system doesn't work or fall short design a web maybe not a whole website but maybe design a hero section for a website design a brochure design some business cards design some social graphics think about the main applications for your client design those and see if it works and then where it breaks or where it's limited go back to your identity design system and see what you need to add and change and and beef it up and make it strong and then you can make more applications and go through this iteration a few

[10:43] times until you feel like you've got a a system which is simple enough to be recognizable but it's flexible enough to be extensible over a number of years and not just a one month launch campaign so there's much more to be said about identity design but hopefully that gives you some insight into the process and some approaches that you can take on your next project love to hear what you think about it in the comments and if you like this video then like it it helps us to know what kind of videos we should make for you so look forward to chatting to you soon happy designing

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