Creatives cannot exist without branding. There are millions of us, all over the world, trying to "make it". How on earth are companies and customers alike going to be able to tell us all apart if we don't play into our individuality? Visual artists have distinct art styles or themes - some artists get on just fine by debranding themselves, such as Banksy.
Go to the website of any writer you know right now. I've got a long-lasting love for Neil Gaiman, so let's look at his site. He's got his name (in case you forgot who you just looked up), a photo of himself, and a whole lot of links to events and books and who knows what else.
Writers of any type get the short end of the stick in the creative world. Our branding has been limited to our name and our face. Maybe that name is always in a certain font, and maybe that face is always striking the same expression. But, at the end of the day, our brand is us.
I think that's a little silly and constricting. I'm a writer, sure, but I'm also plenty of other things worth branding myself around.
Over the spring quarter, I took a Digital Communications class at SCAD. As a part of the class, we had to develop a brand identity, including a logo, business card, and website - hi! From research to publishing, I worked to create branding that related to my goals as an artist and interests as just me.
Research and Ideation
I am a writer who specializes in scripts (plays and audio fiction). I pull from personal experiences, whether I am writing horror, romance, or just whatever I think sounds the cleverest. The #1 goal of anything I create is to spark empathy, compassion, and conversation from the audience. My personal style leans towards “cottagecore,” bohemian, and hippie aesthetics, and is heavily inspired by nature. I wanted my brand to embody what I consider to be the most important facets of my artistic identity: I am a writer, I am rustic, and I am empathetic. I struggled with researching for the branding I wanted from other writers, but through studying the websites of Sam Graber and Eliza Cossio, I found that a script database and basic site layout would be beneficial. My brand personality was established, and the next step was making a logo.
Design after design, I felt that one or more words were missing from my logos. One would be empathetic, but not necessarily rustic. Another would be rustic, but had nothing to do with writing. Some just looked bad! However, without all the flops, I would never have come across my current logo design.
A pen in a sideways P. Is it a seedling on a hill? The P is obvious, but if you flip the logo on its side, it almost looks like an R, too. I had done it.
Step one was complete, but the best was yet to come.
Illustrator Mockups
Graphic designers are the bravest creatives, because I can't ever imagine using Adobe Illustrator for fun, much less as a career. I placed the sketch of my logo into an Ai file and got to work. I did
not expect making round, authentic lines to be so difficult! A couple of my preliminary mockups felt too corporate and sharp, which was completely removing the feelings of authenticity I wanted my brand to have.
Once I finally had the perfect mockup, I moved on to creating a color palette. Brown, green, and cream/beige emphasized the rustic tones of my brand.
Final Design, Final Thoughts
Overall, I'm proud of the work that I did with my logo. It feels like me and it feels like how I want myself to be perceived in the art world. Not only do I get to enter my career with my name and my face, but a logo, too, that hopefully makes me stand out among waves of other entertainment artists.