During our portfolio workshops focusing on creating brand identities, we were encouraged to explore the aesthetics of companies we aspire to work for and tailor our personal brand boards accordingly. Personally, I don’t resonate with this approach, as I believe it could lead me to align with companies whose aesthetics don’t necessarily match my own. This could result in producing creative work that lacks inspiration and depth. Instead, I first assembled my brand board based on my personal creative taste and values. Then, I considered which companies align with my vision. Essentially, I reversed the process, identifying brands that resonate with me rather than creating a fabricated visual identity to fit brands I don’t genuinely admire. Putting together my brand board didn’t take long because I’m confident in my personal creative taste and clear about my values.
Top places on my list would definitely be fashion organisations that focus on more than just pushing products, like WGSN, where I could genuinely make a difference in the industry. However, to be honest with myself, I might need to gain experience with product-focused companies to work my way up to WGSN. Companies like Hugo Boss, Reformation, and Alaia align well with my personal aesthetics.
However, I was absolutely stumped when it came to creating a new brand identity for my SWAPP app, as the feedback from Mark and Jules mainly focused on my chosen colour palette of pink and red, suggesting I rethink it. After plenty of research into WGSN colour trends, graphic designs, and endless Pinterest scrolling for inspiration, I couldn’t decide on the right colours for my app. Lime green and pink? Orange and baby blue? Colour of the year ‘Apricot Crush’?!?!
When asking people around me who haven’t had experience with creative projects, I felt a bit lost trying to explain concepts like ‘Apricot Crush’ and ‘neutral tone light baby blue.’ How could I convey this to someone not familiar with design? I was stuck on this for a while, hindering my progress with the app. Eventually, I managed to create a brand board to move forward.
The app will be the younger little more playful sister of the studio Remoda website which has a more refined aesthetic. To move forward with the app i also need to edit the functions of the buttons in order to produce a more detailed prototype for my final result.