Wordmark research

Wordmark mood board

I decided to create a word mark mood board on Pinterest, above is a screen shot of what the board looks like. I decided to create this board as I wanted to see how well known professional brands and company’s approach wordmark’s with type and words. This has given my a good foundation to start this project. Access my Pinterest link- here.

Personal brands research

I wanted to take my research further and look at some designers personal brands and in particular their wordmark’s, I have gathered a few styles that are very different, but I like each one in a different way.

Tom Anders- Creative art director

Tom uses two fonts for his Wordmark which is quite rare but I actually think that it works here. I am not a huge fan of hand written wordmarks but his is very well crafted and I think that alongside the Anders, they are a nice pair and he has still held onto that professionalism.

Alina Siebert- Graphic designer and photographer

I like the personalisation here with the ‘I’, she has added her own adjustments and it is designed to look like a flower. This tells me a lot about her brand and her as a person and this adds a nice friendly touch to her personal brand.

Pepe Villalobos- Graphic designer and photographer

I think that the above approach is something that would definitely go well with my monogram, it is bold and striking but it still has that creativeness and professionalism that I would to get with my Wordmark and overall brand.

Chris Wood – Graphic Designer

Chris has gone with a hand written type style too, however this seems more animated, he has given this a 3D type vibe. I am not a huge fan of this style and I think if I was to take inspiration from this and pair something similar with my monogram it just wouldn’t go.Through research I definitely want to look at more minimal typefaces, simple but still confident and professional.

From the above wordmark’s above I found it interesting that they are all so different yet they all have a nice personal touch/feel to them. I favour Tom Anders and Alina Siebert’s wordmark’s, I like Alina’s small but not distracting illustration and the with Tom’s I like how he placed his surname underneath, I think they work very well. I haven’t seen many wordmark’s like those, I like their uniqueness and personality, I found it very beneficial to look at active and current designers to see how they have designed their personal brand.

Wordmark’s/fonts in everyday items

I decided to scan my house for items with nice typography and word marks I could use for some off screen/first hand research as it is important to me that I get off screen inspiration.

I really enjoyed the boldness of the ‘CoOp’ logo above. I think that this style shows confidence and I really want my own Wordmark to be confident and strong, this reminds me of a monogram. However, I think this style would be a bit too over whelming if it were used for my entire name.

I like the ‘Elvive’ typeface here is it simple but the rounded edges add a little more personality. Again it is strong and confident and I feel like this style or something similar would be appropriate for brand and would pair nicely with my monogram. It is very important that I create a wordmark that pairs with my monogram, the two need to work in perfect harmony.

The likes of this ‘Yeo Valley’ above style of typography is something that I don’t want for my brand. My monogram is bold and strong and I feel like a ‘hand written typeface just doesn’t pair well with that image and message that I want my brand to get across. The above style is too weak and not professional enough for me.

The three clothing brands above have very similar fonts, they are all in all caps. The idea of using all caps is definitely an option and is something that I want to explore with, however it could look quite loud and in your face. I like the above fonts, they are simple and clear and I think something  similar would be beneficial with my monogram as it is still bold but it isn’t too distracting and looks professional. However I think the above are missing that creative flare that I want my wordmark to have, I want it to have some personality.

The clothing brand ‘Oh Polly’ uses two fonts and this could be smoothing I could explore with, it isn’t that common. However I think if I try two fonts, one for my first name and one for my sir name that would lessen my consistency and make it more confusing my my audience.

The ‘rrd Pepper’ is a local restatement and they use a very fancy font, this font suits the style of their restaurant however and ‘hand written, joint letter’ approach isn’t the style that I want for my brand.

I think like font choice here for ‘Andrex’ it is a nice font with some added personality on the ‘x’ and ‘a’. Taking letters and manipulating them is an approach that I will take when it comes to designing my own Wordmark, this will give it some added personality and I can manipulate it and change it to suit my monogram and brand.

I love the ‘t’ manipulation here on the Tropicanna bottle, it is small adjustments like this that make the world of different when it comes to Wordmarks. Again it is a simple change but it adds a lot of personality to the type and therefore the brand. Each logo above is different to the last, the range of typography is wide and I liked different aspects of each wordmark that I have included. I think that each brand has their own personally and atmosphere and by using typography they have expressed them so efficiently. I have found that they all have simplicity in common, they refrain from using over the top type faces or distracting illustrations.

What have I learned?

My Pinterest board as sparked a lot of ideas for how I will create my personal word mark, that and looking at modern designers personal marks and logo’s I have a good sense of how to keep my wordmark modern and suited to my personality. I enjoyed the first hand research I have done here, this has given be a look into wordmarks in real life and how they work on real products. I have learned that less is more as in many of the wordmark’s I have researched are simple and aren’t overloaded with colour or illustrations.