In any effective brand, designers must first contextually outline and attributes, values, etc to guide their brand in a certain direction. I have done this on my previous ‘Defining the brand’ blog you can find here.
Why Breezy?
For my name I want it to be reflective of my values, visual identity and mental wellness. I decided to pick the name Breezy as it is symbolic of nature (breeze, birds, etc) and ‘eezy’ is representative of the minimalistic and easy-to-use product. Additionally, the word ‘breezy’ rolls of the tounge.
Wordmark
Mood boarding
Above I have compiled a mood board that showcases the type of style I want my own wordmark to contain. These mood boards help me conceptualise my idea by looking at others who intend to invoke similar meanings. My favorite typefaces/wordmarks are Duoloingos, Oduda & Luco’s as I feel like these capture the most personality in a modern and nonintrusive way.
What I’m looking for
- Casual rounded typeface
- bubbly
- Medium-thick weight
- Soft corners
What I don’t want:
These are some similar typefaces/wordmarks that were originally enticing, however, there are a few problems with them when designing for people who have mental issues. I’m not trying to make a headline statement with my wordmark, I’m trying to perpetrate calmness onto the users, the all capital, large x-height can make the user feel like they are being forced to view the wordmark.
- X-height too large
- Too weighty
- All capitals
Developing the Wordmark
When I conducted my initial mood board, one typeface stood out to me the most; Duolingo’s wordmark. The rounded ovals, distributed yet the consistent weight and passive based x-height created a calming yet inviting experience when gazed at. I decided to do a little more digging into Duolingo’s wordmark and downloaded their unique font on their website called feather bold.
Although the typeface was extremely fitting, there were two major drawbacks to the design/structure of the typeface; lack of rounded bevels and pointy corners (representing Duolingo’s feather) Ironically enough, you would think making an app that revolved around birds I would like this feature, however, the sharp bevels weren’t appealing to the type of audience/feeling I am trying to convey in my wordmark so I decided to go onto illustrator to fix things up.
I decided to create modify Duolingo’s typeface/wordmark into a wordmark of my own – I decided to round off the bevels of my wordmark to create a more inviting and friendly appearance. I kerned some of the letters to make them more proportional. Additionally, The use of a medium-thick typeface with rounded corners reflects the softness and friendliness of my brand.
Logo
Mood boarding Logo
What I’m looking for
Looking online, I created a compilation of photos and gathered them into a mood board to create a visual style that I wanted to go with. To ensure consistency I made sure that this reflected my values and my wordmark design.
- Minimalistic
- Thick stroke width
- Iconic
- Symbolic
- Abstract
- Bubbly
- Inviting
- Outlined
Additionally, these more graphic icons were also considered in creating my app – especially for children who don’t like to interpret meanings instead be visually presented a meaning.
What I should avoid:
While the above pictures are great for creating a unique and minimalistic image, they fail to reject the mind of a person suffering from mental disorders. People who do suffer from these conditions can holster anxiety and frustration when they are shown intertwining lines. My purpose is to calm users not project any more anxiety.
Above is a better example showing a drawing of a person with mental issues, the second picture is much heavier and visually obtrusive on the eye which can project anxiety, confusion and fear in the user.
Sketching the Logo
To get me started, I settled on creating an engaging brainstorming exercise in which I wrote as many words as I could think of for mental wellness and birds which features a visual image of what the word conveys. This is an extremely helpful exercise when beginning to conceptualize the logo design.
I then started to combine these words to create unique and relevant symbols/logo designs.
Digitising the Logo
Initially, I settled on the first logo design which is seen above that represents a heart and a bird, however, I found it too weighty and unproportionate, additionally, it wasn’t visually eye-catching or pleasing. I decided to look back over my sketches and look at an old design that was my second favorite – which was representational of a bird + breeze (wind). I then decided to start experimenting with it further, taking out parts and changing the shape of the design. After removing various elements of the design I created something that I found reflects my values and is visually interesting which is shown above. Lesson learned: less = more.
Choosing Colours
Colours are a vital stage in any part of the design, more importantly with mine as I’m trying to convey a deep sense of emotion through my colours. The emojis that I’m trying to convey is:
- Safe
- Inspiring
- Friendly
- Wild (nature)
- Growth
- Calmness
The main colours I picked to represent my brand are (unsurprising) green & white as I want to convey a sense of growth (family building) and nature (relaxation). The white represents purity and cleanliness.
Selecting from the Swatches
One thing that helps me to create a perfect tone is just creating an abundance of swatches of that particular colour. Not only does this help me define my colour scheme but it also helps me to see what colours will settle with the white background.
Primary colour choice: #47AD4D
Visual Inspiration
To make a child-friendly app, one of the most important features of capturing and maintaining a child is the visuals. I was greatly inspired by Kurgazart & Duolingo’s artistic style, the use of minimalistic brightly color shaped and curvey shapes created a modern, fun and visually appealing artistic style. Something that I intended on.