Choosing out a typeface to be representative of my sub-brand is my first step of brand design, as having this already decided will make the process of logo design and more much easier. I struggled to choose between if I wanted to choose a serif or sans-serif font. Sans-serif fonts are what is traditionally used in books and gives a much more historical library feel, however sans serif fonts are more modern and may appeal more to a younger audience.
I found a variety of fonts that I found worked well with the same of my sub brand, OpenBooks. I liked the slightly blocky look of Monda and felt that it might work well in a logo, however I wanted to opt for something more traditional to allow me to keep a consistent font in as many areas of the brand as possible.
For my sub-brand, I wanted to ensure I chose the right colours. Colour can subtly portray a range of messages, such as brand values, tone of voice, mood and much more. LibrariesNI’s current logo is pink and yellow which, in my opinion, could be a good choice however the Sade of each colour selected wasn’t done carefully.
As established, my values are encouraging, calm, personal, simple and educational. For my sub brand OpenBooks, I have decided to go with dark purple as by primary brand identity colour. My justification for choosing purple is perceived as sophisticated and elegant, aligning with the traditional feel of historical libraries. As I’m aware that some of this project involves a landing page and app, I want to choose secondary colours which will contrast well. Therefore, I have went with white and light purple at this early stage of development.
Given the name of the sub-brand is OpenBooks, it made sense to incorporate the literal meaning of this and show a physical open book. I had so many ideas for this which changed as I progressed, so my process of finalising a design was long but worth it.
I was torn on the angle at which I wanted to show the ope book- head on or laying flat. I created a rough concept for the ideas which I had at this point and knew that I needed to take a step back and sketch out of my ideas. Both of the below ideas captured what I had in mind, however I feel that a lack of sketching led me to overcomplicate and not fully think them through.
I originally preferred the first design with text above an open book, so I refined it to make a more impactful logo. Although I really liked this, I felt that using this design would leaver me with only the option of using a combination mark, as the word and image need to be used together.
I then spent quite some time producing a logo mark of a lead-on opened book. I opted for simplicity here, arguably too much, as I asked some people that would fit my target audience for feedback and they said that they couldn’t tell what it was.
