At the start of this module the thought of creating my own brand seemed quite daunting and scary to me, especially in the first week when we had to go around different bank branches and look at how they utilise design and the different touchpoints around the banks. The reason for me feeling unsure of the project was that I thought a bank brand would be quite boring and hard to make interesting but as we moved onto week two and we looked at typography and how brands can use it to their advantage I realised that it was more interesting than I had initially thought. I enjoyed looking at tone of voice in week two as it was a concept I was completely unfamiliar with, and I liked the idea of brands using language based on how they want to be perceived by their customers and based on the specific demographic of the brand. In week three we moved onto wordmarks which was another section of the module I was quite unfamiliar with because I never realised when looking at some brands logo’s how much thought and effort goes into making them. I also enjoyed creating my own wordmark for my brand as it put me in the position of thinking how customers will view and judge the brand purely based on the wordmark. In week four we moved on to logomarks, I really enjoyed the content in class that week because similarly to wordmarks so much thought goes into these logo designs and I found it interesting how a rebrand of a company’s logo can make or break the brand, we looked at the twitter/X rebrand in class and I think that it’s a good example of how a brand can destroy years of effort and design for something far less appealing and original. As the weeks went on, I became more confident that I could create a strong brand identity and I put this to the test by starting to design different parts of my brand like the logo, which I came across by experimenting with the letters of my wordmark. I enjoyed putting my brand into practice after we had made the basics, making the app screens was quite challenging but it was good to test myself by applying everything I had learned about what makes a brand successful and what keeps the customers engaged with the brand. Our last application that we completed was the landing screen, I found creating the landing screen to be less challenging than the app screens because the amount of space you work with allows for more freedom to experiment with and to get your ideas across but it still took a lot of work to get it to the standard that I wanted it to be at.
In conclusion this module helped me express my ideas in a more structured and cohesive way than what I would’ve done previously. It also opened my eyes as to how in depth the world of branding is.
There are several topics from this module that I found interesting but one that particularly piqued my interest was the concept of colour psychology and how brands that are part of similar sectors apply the same colours. Brands realise that colour can evoke emotion, change our perception and even influence customers. What I find interesting about colour in branding is that brands rarely pick a colour that could potentially clash with their brand some of the only outliers that I can think of are Santander with their red colour scheme, Oreo with their blue and android is another anomaly with their choice of green. However, most of the time brands follow this sort of colour code with yellow brands like McDonalds, Ikea, Snapchat and Pokémon being fun, energetic and warm. The colour orange has brands like: Nickelodeon, Fanta, Firefox and sound cloud, these brands all fit into the cheerful, confident and friendly box. Red represents attention, passion, excitement and boldness, the red brands: Netflix, Lego and YouTube all fit perfectly into this category. The next colour is purple which means creative, imaginative and wise brands such as Twitch, Yahoo and Hallmark. Grey is often seen as a neutral and calm colour with brands like apple, who formerly utilised a rainbow across their products but changed to grey after the release of the first iMac. Nike and Wikipedia both follow the neutral grey colour scheme. Brands can also force themselves into colour regardless of the meaning of the colour, Coca-Cola for example has such a strong brand recognition that they’ve successfully ingrained themselves and become instantly recognisable in a colour full of competitors. Although colour psychology provides valuable insights, brands aren’t confined to colours based on their meaning as they have the chance to craft their identity and change the associations linked with their colour by using consistent branding and messaging. Its interesting to see how different culture’s view colour differently from us, the far east for example views the colour black as a colour of health and prosperity, they also view the colour red as a sign of good fortune and health. In Africa the colour yellow is for mourning and green represents corruction. I find it fascinating that based on where you are from you could have a completely different perception of colour and brands that utilise them.
In conclusion, Colour is powerful for brands when they craft their identity as it evokes emotion and influences customers. By selecting colours that align with their values and their target audience, brands can establish a visual identity which helps them differentiate from competitors and makes valuable connections with customers across different touchpoints. As brands continue to grow and change the use of colour will remain relevant to create a strong and effective identity.