Brand Development

 

I have recently had my week 6 group critique and I got some great feedback. I have decided to work more on my travel apps actual brand. I want to develop this travel app brand as I want to develop my branding skills and improve my overall app, it is important to me that I explain my thinking and reasoning for my choices for my app and this brand.

 

The journey of naming my travel app

 

Generating ideas

I set myself a time limit to note down as many different names revolving travel as I could, I wanted to generate as many different names as possible and this challenge allowed me to do so without over thinking.

 

Decided name- GAP N’ GO

after reading through what I had generated I had decided that the best option for me was ‘Gap N’ Go’, it is snappy, quick and easy to say. I feel like this name is appealing to the younger audience and that is my target.

 

What is my aim with this app?

My aim to to create a travel app that is illustrated beautifully and also has good ux and user usability. I want to create an app based on gap year travel that is perfect for teenagers and young adults.

 

What tone of voice do I want for this brand?

I want my brands tone of voice to be:

• friendly
• inspiring
• inviting
• adventurous
• vibrant
• positive
• helpful

 

What does this brand value?

Freedom

Passion to travel

Independence

Community

Fun

Excitement

 

 

Who is the target audience?

-My target audience is young adults

 

 

Brand Colour scheme

 

 

 

 

Why did I choose this colour scheme?

I have decided on this colour scheme as I find these colours would appeal to young people, the orange is warm and inviting and with the purple it is very complementary. The orange tones are welcoming and comforting and the purple resembles wisdom and knowledge, creating this safe space for young travellers, this is a really important aspect to me that I wanted to achieve.

 

 

Brand visual marque

Gap N’ Go’s visual marque is a hot air balloon. I began designing this with some quick sketches which I have included below of different illustration approaches including the use of very simple flat shapes and more complex 3d ideas.

 

Sketches

 

 

Final Digital outcome

 

 

 

Why a hot air balloon and what does it represent?

I chose a hot air balloon as the visual marque for this app because it represents the idea of freedom, floating away off into the distance somewhere new and exciting, it represents that idea of not being ‘tied down’ or restricted and it shows that travel can be spontaneous and liberating! I felt like this would intrigue young people as that is what a lot of young travellers want, they want freedom and the chance to see new and fun things all over the world. In short, the use of this hot air balloon for this app symbolises youth and freedom.

 

 

Home screen

The home screen is a big part of my apps brand, I want the home screen design to be something that could possibly be used for landing pages and social media. I want there to be consistency within this brand and the app, so to get this right I sketched out some wireframes below expressing possible ideas with the use of the hot air balloon.

 

sketches

 

 

Original

This was my original home screen, within the group lecture Paul advised that I look at my type again as it doesn’t quite match the overall feel and experience that this app could give off. I also wasn’t a fan of my initial hot air balloon, I felt eh base wasn’t quite right.

 

 

 

Revised

I decided to choose a different font, one with more character and personality and I think that this has made the world of difference to the home screen making it much more inviting. I also revisited my air balloon design by replaced the base with a softer colour.

 

 

 

 

 

Brand wordmark

Original

Font- Open sans

This was my original wordmakr for my brand, the font isn’t right and the letters are coming off too aggressive as they are in all caps. Paul suggest that I also add in an apostrophe after the N.

 

 

Revised

Font- Indie Flower

I feel like this new font captures everything that I want this brand to be, it is more friendly, youthful and welcoming and to the younger adults that this app is designed for.  It is playful and adds that fun, happy-go-lucky vibe that I was after, resembling a more adventurous atmosphere. I feel like this font meets my brands aims and tone of voice much more than my previous choice.

 

 

 

 

Wordmark in my brand colours

I have tested this new font in a couple of my brands colours. I think that both tones work with this font however the deeper purples will have more impact and are much more eye grabbing.

 

 

 

 

Home page banner

I have designed a banner for this app and this could be used and or displayed on a website homepage or social media.

 

 

 

I have also been playing around with this concept of placing a mobile phone app over the top of a larger image, to showcase that this is an app.

 

 

 

What is next?

Now that I have my brand choices made for this app I am ready to keep designing more screens and I am very excited to see my final app product! Moving forward I will complete all of my other app screens using this brand guide, in preparation for my final hand-in.