Establishing a brand
After choosing my typefaces, (headings – Square One, body text – Mina), and choosing which art style to follow – I wanted to create a visual marque to use as my logo.
I think this would really bring the whole brand together, and give it a unique and recognisable visual element. I figured that an illustrative visual marque as the logo would be a better approach to take, rather than a monogram of sorts. This is because the monogram would simply end up being some variation of “A11” and I want it to be more fun to look at than that, because I want the user to enjoy the experience they have whilst looking through the website.
Sketching Visual Marque Ideas
I thought that the best way to design a suitable visual marque would be to sketch out some ideas to choose from.
My first idea was a quick sketch of the Earth from the Moon. I really liked this idea, but when I thought about it, it didn’t properly strike me as very Apollo 11 mission-esque. At first, yeah, but after I quickly sketched the Saturn V, and the half moon with the American flag on top, I realised that they were slightly more suited to the brand. I thought, though, that using the Saturn V as my logo / visual marque could be too close to straight up plagiarism.
Seeing as my colours are already the same as the NASA colours, I wanted to try and make my brand be more unique. So, I decided to go with the half moon idea.
I liked the idea of making this a more cartoony, illustrated look, as the rest of my site will be more photography based so this would separate the brand from that quite nicely. I also thing it encapsulates the premise of the project really well, seeing as they did erect a flag on the moon once they landed – and my website is about the Apollo 11 mission.
Thoughts:
I think that my new visual marque pulls the brand together quite well, and I am happy that I took the approach that I did. It obviously isn’t picture perfect, but that was never the plan with it anyway, so I’m still pleased with the outcome.
I’m not too sure where in my project I can include this, but I’m sure I’ll find a way somehow.